The public has had a long held fascination with detectives. Detective see a side of life the average person is never exposed to. I spent thirty four years as a cop. For twenty five of those years I was catching killers. That's what I did for a living. I was a homicide detective. I'm no longer just interviewing bad guys. Instead, I'm taking the public into the world in which I operated. The guests I talk to each week have amazing stories from all sides of the law. The interviews are raw
and honest, just like the people I talk to. Some of the content and language might be confronting. That's because no one who comes into contact with crime is left unchanged. Join me now as I take you into this world. Today, I spoke the Shannon Old House. Shannon has a history of violence. Does that make him a bad man? You can form your own views after listening to our chat.
We talked about a lot of heavy personal stuff, growing up as an indigenous youth in the Northern Territory, the impact of being a survivor of child sexual abuse, family violence, drug addiction, his own acts of violence, including a vicious prison assault, and his time as a sergeant of arms of an outlaw motorcycle gang. But what I found most interesting about Shannon is what he's doing now and how he's turned his life around. Mate, you're a scary looking dude.
I'm looking at your face tattoos, neck tatoos. It's you got it written all over you don't mess with me.
Yeah, yeah, well that's what I get from a lot of people. Yeah, definitely, definitely that only you know, I mean, it's have been like that for years, you know, but yeah, it's you know, my story is my life? Really? Yeah?
Yeah, what's ago with the tattoos? When did you start getting them?
Well, you know, it's funny like story about We're not really funny about it. I started getting them when I got addicted to Metham Fatamin, you know, like, yeah, yeah, I never had any face tattoos, head tatoos or anything until I started using heavy drugs. And then yeah, once I started using heavy drugs, I was just like, I want this face tattoo, I want that head tattoo.
And yeah, oh yeah, I'm true.
This is a true story. I'm not even lying about this. I woke up in prison, and once I actually sobered up in prison, I really sobered up. I did look in the mirror and I was thinking, Wow, it's like, what happened?
What have I done?
Yeah, that's exactly what I thought. Oh yeah, I was shocked. I was shocked myself.
Trust me, Well, you can't. You can't avoid it. Every time you're look in the mirror, it's there, and I would imagine people react differently to you.
Yeah, yeah, it's you definitely see the different groups of people. When I'm walking through the streets. You see obviously people that are hard out, gang life style. Top of people I bore me and like suss me out and try, especially because if they're from that area and I'm not try I figure out who I am. But it's like I've had like elderly and the kids and all that, like it's weird, Like they love on me. They always intrigued and like nice fate, nice statues. Where did that hurt?
Did this herd? What's even the kids? You know, like yeah, it's too it's funny. And you get all the people who obviously got something or done something bad and stuff like that that got enemies. You know, they look at me like, you know, like.
You're in the area for Yeah, yeah, No, I would imagine that change people's perspective. But I'm obviously not a psychologist, but it looks like there's a lot of anger and torment. There is that part of it, Like what was the basis of it?
Yeah? Is really to be honest, it's the pain, you know. I mean like it's when I got the first one, I kind of got addicted to that, like that feeling, you know, that sense of being able to go through all that pain and stuff like that and just lay there and I enjoyed it, you know, so I just kept getting more and more and more. Yeah, before I knew it, and it.
Was it was at a time you were getting it was a commitment to your lifetime lifestyle. You never thought you were going to turn it around. What was Yeah, any social aspect of it, it's almost a rebellious that, yeah, aspect of it going well, okay, this is the way I write what are you going to do about?
Yeah? That's pretty much exactly how it was.
You know.
I was part of a club, you know, so part of the gang life, and I wanted to show it, you know, so I've got all the face hats and all that, and just to prove you know, especially through the interior wherever I was that you know, I wasn't afraid of the life I was living, or you know, afraid of the people who were hated on me or or what I was doing, or you know, with the people that I was hanging around. You know.
So well, it's a podcast, so the people listening can't see but the full face tattoos and neck tattoos. So yeah, that leaves an impact. Let's say. Yeah, now we got together because of a mutual mate, Jeffrey Morgan. Jeff's been on the podcast. He had his life, went off rails at a hard start in life and spent a lot of time inside, but he's really turned his life around. How did you to connect cause I think it's a great connection. I've got a lot of respect for Jeff
and what he's doing. Now, how did you to meet up?
Yeah, yeah, it was Yeah, it was exactly that's exactly right, you know. And so I just finished doing a bit of a bit of a lag, you know, seven years in Northern Territory. So when I got released, like or while I was still in there, you know, I thought I need to change my life. You know, this is this is this is not the way they live. You know, it's too you know, it's like he wants to live this life. You know, he wants to be worried about who's coming after you, who's going to get your or
you know. I just saw the dramas and that they come with that, you know, like just just really got to me in in so I thought I practiced and trained and taught myself inside of prison how not to
let that stuff bother me for reading and stuff, you know. So, and then when I got released, I started doing like stories and that on Instagram about like the crimes I did, you know, the road I was heading and got into a bitter youth worker there in the Northern Territory with a local boxing club there, and one of the stories reached another fellow, Russell Manso, and he shared my story and then did a shout out to me, and that obviously Jeff and that scene that and then Morg's Yeah.
Then he started started sussing out and followed me. I followed him, and I started looking at he's reals and I thought, wow, I got this. Blake's got exactly nearly this exact same story as me, but and changed his life in prison the same year, like same age I did,
you know, but obviously he's a lot more advanced. When I'm going to follow this bloke, you know, like this blake, he has got a good story and I love his reels and he's the way he's teaching everything and talking about it and the way he's cut from where he came from to where he is today just spun me out, you know. And when I was in jail, that's exactly
what I was telling myself, that's where I'm going to be. Yeah, before I even knew that, those people like him doing it already, and then when I got out and seeing him doing it, that's what just blew my mind. And I was like, oh wow, I've got to meet this bloke, you.
Know, get involved in that someone what he's got. It's important having role models, isn't it. Seeing someone like with Jeff breaking the mold. Like if you looked at Jeff's life twenty years inside, didn't look like he had the future and come out and he's turned it completely round that he's living a good life now. So do you see that like almost like a role model?
Yeah, definitely, definitely, Like it just shows you that anything is possible. Yeah, and no matter what your background, no matter what your life was in the past, like you know, like you don't just have to shut down, breakdown and think and that you can't rebuild, refix and build yourself to live that better life, to live life like Jeff, you know. And yeah, it's he's approven the putting that you could do it, and so you know, I thought, well, you know, if he can do it, then I can
do it, you know. Yeah, So that's what I'm trying to build now, just around Australia and the NT. You know.
Well, we're going to talk about all the stuff you're doing and from what I've sayen, there's a lot of good stuff. And if you're following the pathway of how Jeff's turned his life around, I think you're heading in the right direction. But there were some deep, dark moments in the past for you, and we'll delve into that just so people understand the journey that you've been on. The upfront, I want to know, yeah, X biking and a cop. See here, I'm about to play you a video.
If I was your solicitor, I'd say make no comment. It's something that's online, so it's not something that's secret. You've spoken to me about it, and I just want to want to play it and get your thoughts on it was when you've gone in the prison and an assault that you committed in the prison that was captured on the CCTV footage and released in the media. Do you mind me playing that?
That's fine?
Okay. Now people can't see the video that we've just played because it's a podcast, but if your head over to YouTube, it will be displayed in full. There fairly short, but intense. It looks like it was a yard are in a prison and you've approached someone giving him a kick in the head and then laid I lost count after about twenty punches and giving him another kick in the head. How do you feel watching that now? Where you're at now.
I look at some definitely not a message I want to send to other people. You know. It's you know, it's a good way about going going about life, you know what I mean, regardless of the situation or what's happened, you know. So yeah, you know it's I've got an extra four years for that as well.
So right, yeah, I would imagine you're looking there and even at the time, like and we'll talk later when your time in prison, why that why that assault happened? But an extra four years Yeah, it might have he might have deserved it might have felt good at the time or whatever, but four years is a long time. Do you after you do something like that, do you go back to yoursel after all the bravado's gone away, and sit there and go, what the fuck? What have I done? Yeah?
One hundred percent. Like you know, I was. I was one of them follows too that, you know, out of anger, I'd say something, you know, I'd say something in front of people, Yeah, whether if I'm going to this bloke, I'm going to bash him or something like that, you know, and then when that would happen, Yeah, because I've said it in front of people, especially in jail, I had to do it. Yeah, I could not not do it,
you know what I mean. Yeah, So that's kind of the scenario that with that situation as well, And I thought, oh, I've sat in front of in front of the young lads, now, you know, I've got to go to show them, you know, I got to prove you know that I can do it, you know. So yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's.
A tough environment it's an environment that's Yeah, you've got to be able to hold your own and make statements like that. And we have a lot of blokes have been in prison and talk about that and the impact that it has on you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely it's it's definitely not a place anyone wants to be, that's for sure.
Well, you know, I think people like you sitting down and getting the message across that, Okay, it might sound cool when you're a young fella trying to make a name for yourself, but no one wants to been in prison.
Nah. No, definitely not like you know, it's and I've seen that the whole time. I've done it nearly ten years in Northern Territory. So that's when I took back and I sat back, and I started observing people and watching certain groups and their stories what they kept coming in and out for, and I thought, you got to change it. I mean, even the toughest lads in prison would always win you about being in prison, you know
what I mean, Like it wasn't they didn't. And then all the follows that are saying, oh I do this standing on my head and all that, Well, then why are you running from the police. If you can do prison standing on your head, you're not afraid of jail. Why do you run every time the cop has come for you? You know what I mean?
I had a Spanion on the podcast, you know Spanion. Yeah, he was talking about in youth detention, boys homes and all that. It all sound glamorous. Everyone was out to make a name for themselves. And then when he finally got the prison, he looked around and gone, it's just yeah, the ones with the respect that these old pricks that have been in there for half their life, and it's not a life you want to live. But look, we've jumped ahead, we've taken a straight into the prison. We
better let you grow up. So tell us your story. Where'd you grow up?
Yeah? I was born and raised in Darwin, so yeah, that's where pretty much where my family live and my parents and that Yeah, born there as well, grew up there, so you know that's that's that's where I was born and grew up in the street.
See yeah, when you say grew up on the streets, what was it? What was your childhood like?
The childhood wasn't like it was it was semi okay, you know, I mean a lot of a lot of alcohol and violence, like domestic violence and stuff like that when I was a young young kid, you know what I mean. So yeah, I remember still remember all those days, you know, like really well, yeah, it definitely wasn't and it was always always our house was kind of like the go to place when people wanted a party, you know.
Yeah. So so at that age, what were you saying? How were we and what whatty?
To be honest, as far as you can go back to as far as earliest memories, earliest memories, yeah, until you know, like to my teens.
Yeah, yeah, And how did you react to that? Like you you're running around unsupervised or what?
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, so I actually just take off and because I was petrified when I seen that stuff happened. And you're yeah, yeah, you know, so all the uncles are punching on in front of yours, you know, and you use the toddlers and you know, like three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nineteen years old, you know, so.
Did you think that was the norm? Did you just like that was what life was about? Like, I'm just curious as a kid if that's what you've seen.
Yeah, Well, to be honest, I knew what was going to happen. Every time they was a drinking, Like people were drinking and partying, and it kind of like every place that I went to, no matter what, that would happen at those places, you know, no matter who, which family, whichever place it was at. That was definitely the case, and definitely by the end of the night there was ambulances and police cars rocking up for some sort of you know, pretty serious assault.
You described to me when we're having a yarn the other day that, yeah, you're riding around on pushbikes and front rocks at police cars and taxis and that sort of stuff. Is that, yeah, the type of thing that you're getting up to.
Yeah, yea. So it was just you know, like all of us kids in that from the street, you know, we had all the street kids and all that was well it was all housing commission, you know. So we used to just jumping out push bikes and take off, especially when all the parents and that all the all the adults were drinking and you know there was our
safe haven. Killed Tom, kill her, bought them roll around and yeah, we used to to to kill that bottom you know, that would rock taxis or rock police cars and try to try getting the police chase and that you know, I went to try to get chased by them, you know, right.
They get their attention. F Yeah yeah, rock at the police car. How old were you.
Then, that's I reckon. That was even before my teens and all the way up and through through to my teens.
Yeah yeah, yeah, you mentioned if you're comfortable talking about it, but it's happened to a lot of people that are sexual abuse too.
Yeah yeah, yeah, I went through that as a as a child as well, you know, from a primarly friend. So yeahs I was getting sexually abused by him since a kid, you know what I mean. And that all happened at these parties, you know, so when the families well, drinking and and having a laugh and partying and stuff
like that. You know, by the end of the night thereas yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, that's exactly that's the case, you know, and you see that around everywhere, you know, that's that's definitely what happens, you know.
Yeah. So yeah, and it's important we talk about your upbringing because I've said that in the introduction. Let's find out about this person and see why you turned out the way you turned out what you described there there, there's some pretty horrific things for a young fellow to be growing up and experiencing that type of stuff and without direction or that. If your mates are from rocks at the police cars I'd be from rocks at the police cars too. You wouldn't be thinking it's all about it.
No, No, that's exactly right. Yeah, and that's what happened.
You know what what you got taken away from from darn was an uncle that took you down to South Australia. Yeah.
Yeah, So my mum's brother, he's a good man, you know, is pretty successful in news line of work down in South Australia, you know, looking after Indigenous people down there. And I was just bluing punching on in the territory and stole my mom's cart and busted up, you know, like when I was I think I was fourteen maybe.
Though that never goes down well nah, nah.
You know, I still remember when my mom walked in, you know, and you come up and booted me in the ribs and told me to get get the fuck out, you know, and so I ran because my stepdad woke up and he was a scary one, you know, So I boss jumped the fence took off, you know, and I was living at bus stops, breaking into the shops, stealing whatever I could to eat, you know, for days,
you know, in the house like lounge, shopping. And I was fourteen, fourteen years old, but I was too scared and too afraid and too embarrassed to ask friends or family if I could stay out theirs.
Yeah.
I was too scared too that I thought that my mum and the old man was going to rock up, you know, looking for me to give me a hiding, you know, So I just so I would, I would
avoid those places, you know. So I ended up the air crashing at bus stops in it for a little while, and until I met another fellow and through one of my cousins, and we just went and crashed on ease lands, you know, until I was at Casuna shopping center one day and my sister told me that my uncle was down from Adelaide, yeah, and that he wanted to talk to me. So then yeah, I went home. That's when he said, you know, you're coming to Adelaide with me, you know.
So okay, how did that work out? How old were you when you went fourteen four and how that? How did that work out? You get some stability?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no it was you know, so I agreed to it, and yeah, we jumped in the car and you know, about a week I think it was a week after and we drove down back down to Adelaide. He enrolled me into a high school down there, Underdee High and yeah, I went through a completed year twelve and that there. You know, I still got hooked in the grog and stuff like that, and I was still
punching on blew and like back. You know. As for the street crime stuff, yeah, you know that that kind of that disappeared when I was down there, you know, like dropped off.
How long we're down there for? How long were you living with your uncle?
Well that that's that there. I was there for three four years, four years yeah that still.
Yeah, and you attended school, you were going to school, yeah mate, yeah, okay, so you were looking at sort of seventeen eighteen. What made you head up back up to the Northern Territory.
I think I just missed home, you know, missed home. All my nephews and nieces were growing up and they didn't even know my name, and you know, so I kind of wanted to go back up there and reconnect with my brothers, my sisters, with the kids too, you know, all the nephews and nieces, especially after like what like, especially after what happened to me when I was growing up as a kid around that area and them households. I didn't want my nephews and nieces to experience that
too and go through the same thing. So so I thought I better get up there, you know, and just make sure that's all right. They're right, you know.
And how'd that work out for you when you when you went back up there.
Yeah, it started off all right, and then again I got hooked on the grog and some of the drugs and drug life and stuff like that.
I read one of the interviews, and you've done quite a few few interviews now, but we met and feathermone the euphoric hit that you got when you tried it first uff, Yeah, dragged into it. Yeah, what what the talk was through that process?
Yeah, No, it was. I still remember the first day I took it. I had a like a good made of mine. We went for a drive, packed up packed up in a like in a in the bush and he's like, can you get that? Get the pipe out of the glove box. I was like, oh, I thought it was I thought it was a marijuana pipe, you know. So I pulled in and it's just this glass pipe
and I'm like, oh, that's weird, you know. Gave it to him and then he's pulled out this little bag of ice, myth and like, what the hell is that, you know, and he's just like it's ice, you know. I was like, what do you mean ice? And he's nah, it's like meth, you know, like it gets you high and want someone's like noah, nah na stuff that, you know, like I get drug tested and he's like, no, it's out of your system in a couple of days, you know. And then I thought, oh, I'll give it a little try.
As soon as I had that first blaze, it was just over, you know, like, yeah, I just can't remember. Like the next ten years pretty much was just a blur.
I've had other people on the podcast and no people that have that same story. But yeah, you think, you think your strong willed, you could I can try it and just see what it's like and then walk away from it. But people just get that first first hit and they're gone.
Yeah. Yeah, it was after that first hit, you know, I just just went downhill from there, like I lost thirty thirty six kilo, just was getting sores everywhere. I was just paranoid, wouldn't leave home for days, you know, like staring at the window for two three days at a time.
Like you get that glaze looking that junkie type look about it, you don't you?
Yeah?
Yeah, had you got in the training and that when you were down in Adelaide, were you doing any stuff physically?
Yeah? Well when I was down there, I was playing rugby and you know, like I had a little gym set up and stuff like that, so I I was hitting the gym here.
And looking after yourself. Yeah, and then then it just all went skew if when you got the drugs.
Yeah, yeah, when I went up and got on the drugs and it just all went down here, just no training, nothing, just hitting the drugs heavy, not eating, screaming.
Yeah. It's not a real good promotion for it, is it. How do you address that up?
Yeah?
Yeah, you get it, get it high, and then you destroy your life.
Yeah yeah, you know, like I've had mates millionaires that own their own bigger companies, like had contracts on minds and at an NT like living out of the cars like like in no time, you know from that stuff as well.
Yeah, we do need to get that message out, isn't it? Like you see some really capable people with just their lives are destroyed once they get get addicted to it. What was the other thing you're doing in life? How did you find your way towards bikes? What what attracted the bikes first?
Up before the Yeah, so what happened there was I was I was living and working in Perth at the time, and I had a mate, a really good mate. He was that good like I just call it my cousin and know, and from Adelaide. And he told me that, oh yeah, we're going to head up to daw and I want to introduce you to a feel of my mates, you know. And I'm like, oh, who your mates? Like I know they were the White Club, you know, like
we're there one percenters. And I was like, oh yeah, And I thought I don't know any one percent you know, And I thought it'd be interesting to find out about him and stuff like that, and so I flew up to flew up to day and got introduced to him, and you know, there's a big bunch of these pretty big big lads covering ink and stuff like that, partying and at the pub, you know, drinking up and you know, we just we just partied for a couple of days and that's when I got to meet him or and
that was the first my introduction to that life, you know.
And what what the track? You're already into the drugs at that stage. I've been off.
I've actually been off the drugs for a while.
The yeah, okay, so what what what attrack did you to?
What was I think it was mainly just like the tattoos.
And drinking and you tear it up at that stage.
Nah, And I had a couple of tattoos, but yeah, nothing nothing like how I've got now. So yeah, yeah.
So the drinking, the and I hear blakes of the bening clubs and said, look, it's the good parts of you're you're on the high, when you're you're riding the bikes, you're hanging out with mates and getting all sorts of
sorts of trouble. That's the sort of attraction you were looking for, is And I'm asking this question I'm not saying that it's a case with you, but a lot of the blokes I've spoken to have gone down the path of going into the omcgs, have had childhoods where they didn't feel like they had a connection, felt like they were out misfits, didn't fit in, and they found that brotherhood in the bike gang. Is that something that resonated with you?
Yeah, definitely, you don't like it. You know, like that sense of protection too, you know, like you know, if anything happened to you that you know, or you got you all the lads and all that, they would just come come come back you up, no matter what you know or supposed to you know, So you know, was that that kind of lifestyle as well? And you know the how they didn't like certain criminals, you know, like like child sex offenders, is you know, crime against children,
et cetera. You know, like all that kind of stuff too. So you know that's definitely all that was was a big, big partner as well.
Okay, so you saw some some of shared values in what they did. Yeah, okay, when when did you actually what was the process of joining the club and what club are You're happy to mention the club that you joined.
Yeah, yeah, I was, so, I was a member of the Rebels MCP. So yeah, we just chapter and chapter. Yeah, so we started up and down and I joined them. I started nominal for them, and yeah, it was just basically all we had to do, like all I had to do, like obviously different different parts of the clubs and that, you know, they've got different ways of you know,
getting your colors and have it. Just prove yourself nominal, nominal prospecting, you know, for them for for the twelve months or however long it takes for them to give you your colors, and you know, just work behind the bar, make sure that you know, like all all the clubhouse, yeah yeah, make sure the club house clean, the bikes, you know, the field up, you know, going on runs like you always got to be on runs in that too, and get involved in all that stuff too, and volunteer
and help out with all them, you know. So and then once you can I prove that and then you know, all the other members and that like yeah, you know, then yeah, they'll come to come to a point where they're just like, all right, well we're going to give him his colors.
You know. Yeah, did you did you have enough concern that that stage when when you join the club that yeah, the old addages, you're even going to end up there or in jail. Yeah, but I suppose you've got all the bravard they at that point in time, and you think it's not going to happen to me.
Yeah, yeah, kind of, you know, especially Daryn, like darn wasn't There was some bad stuff that happened up there too, involving clubs and stuff like that, but it wasn't really. It was nothing like like bloody Sydney or bloody Melbourne or or Perth or South Australia. You know. So he's like, you'll fighting more with you like the cruise, you know what I mean, like mate, like pretty much my own family and stuff like that, you know, like you know
that's who, That's who it was all warring with. You know.
So when when did you first get in trouble with the when you were hanging out with the bikies with the law, what was there?
I think it was twenty thirteen and that might have been two and thirteen.
Yeah.
I got done for a robbery and company. Yeah yeah, so I was a debt collection. I went and collected a debt or one bloke Rode. I think it was like four thousand dollars.
Yeah, yeah, and did that Did you get custodial sentence on that?
Yeah, yeah, I got. I'm pretty sure it was a two and a half year with twelve months twelve months of serve.
Yeah. Yeah, so that was your first stint inside. Yeah yeah, how did you find that? Yeah?
I was I was discussing, you know, like up in the prison in yeah, old Bear. Yeah, so I was the old Barama jail. So that's what was my first introduction to prison there, you know.
Yeah.
So yeah, they threw me in there, threw me in a block cord. They called it the bird cage. So it's the walls were just you know those the steel mesh that they use when they're pouring slabs.
Yeah, with the big holes in them.
Yeah. So all they did was they were the walls. They just welded them, tacked them to yeah, like a lego block. Yeah. Yeah, so you could see straight through them. The breeze comes straight through, and you know, you've got dormitories. So there's there's three wings. You know, you go to walk in. There's a wing to the right wing, to the left and wing straight down and then every dorm. I think there was about two four six eight, ten, twelve, maybe fourteen sixteen prisoners and each each each dorm.
And were you're you're in the gang at that stage, so yeah, they keep you, keep you separated or kept kept you together. And was there other members of your gang in there?
Yeah? Yeah, there was another member of the same club, and they kept they pretty much kept us separated.
Yeah yeah, yeah, kept your own gang mate mate separated. Yeah.
Yeah, they tried keeping us us to separate it from each other, right, yeah, through majority of the sentence. It wasn't until halfway through it and they you know, said, oh, you know, we chuck him in the block with with the you know, the other member.
You know other dude, what about with the indigenous fellows in there? Because you have the high rate of incarceration up there in Northern Territory, did you you have people in there, your mob in there?
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, like I had heaps of family in there, like heaps. Yeah. Yeah, that was if they if they weren't my family, then a lot of them were in laws or in laws to my family, you know, So you know, I was just packs of them, you know what I mean, like.
Did anyone did you have any that first stint that you did inside, did anyone give you a wake up call and go what are you doing with your life? Or it was just this is a path where we follow.
No no, you know, like it's no one actually yeah, honestly gaming it talking to you know, like yeah when I did that first little stint or anything like that, you know. So yeah, yeah, they just just rolled with the punches really and just went in there and done my twelve months and punched on through that twelve months I was there, you know, just trying to make a name for myself in prison as well, you.
Know, punching on in prison. Yeah, yeah, it was that. I know. We've had Russell Mancer we mentioned there's sadly passed away, but he tells the times he head up in the Northern Territory and it was a rough old roughfold time in prison. Yeah, lots of lots of fights, heaps, heaps.
Yeah, it's just every day it's just fights after fire like coaches getting called.
Yeah yeah, and no punishment for it or.
You know, you get thrown down. It's it's weird, like you know, a lot of the people that I see, like I've seen it that many times where the actual people initiate the troublemakers, and that they always do it. Yeah, you know, like they'll come down to the back cells like separate confinement and then they get it let out the next day and they'll get shipped off to a
local security or anything. I had to try to separate the two groups, yeah, or you know, to separate whoever it is, and then you'd have like people like me and a few other young lads that you know, like if we even said something wrong in front of the office or whatever like that, you know, they would slap us for and max block for another six months and then put us on restrictions, phone restrictions, visit restrictions, non contact stuff like that, you know what I mean.
So, just how long did you do with that stint? You got two and a half years, was that the Yeah, two and a half.
So two and a half years serve twelve months suspended after twelve.
When you're in there and I'm just asking you and everyone and have their own own different things, did you think at some point in time in that twelve months, and we know without giving away at the end, that you've turned you turned your life around in your latest stint, But in that first twelve months, did you think, Jesus Shannon, what are you doing? Mate? Did you, yeah, question where your life was heading?
Yeah? I did, Like I did. I did definitely questioned it, you know. So it was the anxiety and that the things that'd run through your mind when you're in no situations and no positions in themselves, especially the back cells and that you know, like and like it's just a stuff too, Like you're just like there's that million things hitting you at the same time from all different directions. You know, you get confused and you don't know what
you know, what's right from wrong. And like I said that, when you come out from from themselves, you know, because there's a lot of people on edge in them places too, So you can't come out and I don't want to do this, I don't want to do that, or I can't do this anymore, can't do that because with certain people too, there's repercussions you know if you do try to get out or leave or you know, like you know, it's in any anything and dar on like all the street gangs and stuff like that.
You know, I think I understand what you're saying. You've said in those quiet moments when you're tucked away in the cell, your head spinning, you've got thoughts going through your mind and questioning your life and all that. But the moment the gates or the cell door opens and you're back in the yard, you've got to switch on to the tough guy. Yeah, yeah, you do. You don't give a fuck.
Yeah you can't. You can't show.
No.
It's like I said, especially that place, like there wasn't a day in that place where I didn't well when you weren't suffering from any kind of anxiety, like you're hot, you lit, your anxiety levels were heightened. There was tension in the block all the time, you know, So regardless of how you're feeling in the cell, once the doors are unlocked and you come out, it's game on, you know, Like you've got to walk out with your head held high and ready to punch on with anyone, you know what I mean.
Like it's a good environment.
Nah, Na, it's disgusting.
I've spoken the blokes in there and they talk about, yeah, you've got to bridge up the whole time. As you just describe, you've got to be ready to go, and then when you get released, you're still carrying that attitude. When you're out on the street and you walk past someone that bumps into you and you feel like you've got to knock him out to hold hold your ground.
Yeah, yeah, no, that's exactly what happens, you know. You know when I got out, the same thing, and I thought, oh, you know, if I bump into this person or bump into that person, you know, like, am I going to have to punch on? Like even though I don't want it any more? Like I've changed my life, you know, like I've made peace with my pass and made peace with my enemies. Whether they made peace with me after that now it's I don't know, but I know one hundred percent that I've made peace with them.
You know.
So you know, if I've seen them and they wanted to shake my hand, right now, do it? You know what I mean?
Was there anything in that first thing you did in prison that you reckon could have made the difference for you or change your trajectory on where your life was heading? Is there anything? Or were you just You're too caught up in the lifestyle at that point in time.
I think it was my age too, you know, because I was still a young fella. Young I was twenty five and twenty five, twenty six, so I still seem in my little prime, in my prime young adult that stage is. And a lot of the young fellows and all that, like, and the older fellows looked up to me too, you know, because I would punch on yeah, you know, and I did punch on you know, on the streets inside, you know, so you know, I kind of had to when I come out, you know, just play that same role, you know.
And if you're on the sets intoxicating too, if you're strutting your stuff and people looking up to you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, Like you know, it's and like people don't realize too, you know, like you've after you've done what you're done. Like I'm not talking for everybody, but like I know a lot of the people that
do it, you know, you do feel guilty after. Like I've seen some of the hardest lads in jail that run the anti correction system right now come to me depressed and ain't like upset with themselves after them half killing somebody inside their cell because yeah, because they looked at them the wrong way, or they owe them buy up eighty dollar by for the week, you know, yeah, and they come back. Oh you know, you know, I feel bad and you know they'll shattered.
You know, I've seen that. But the sad part in that environment, there's you can't show any of that, can you. That's the thing. You got to bottle that up. As you've described. So you got out, you're still in the still in the bikis.
So I definitely left them.
Yeah yeah, but this is after your first stint.
After the first hint. Yeah yeah, yeah, so it was it was weird like after the first stint, I got kicked out. So I got kicked out while I was still in prison.
How do you get kicked out?
Yeah, well that's exactly right. I don't know. So I got kicked out, well, I was still in prison. I think it's because I was a little bit loose to you know, like when I was on the drugs and the drink I was, I was rocking up the places. You know, I'm not going to lie. You know, I had blades on me, little samurai SuDS and stuff like that,
you know, when you're in. When I was in, when I was outside with the club before I went in, and I think the lads who was they all left the club now, but the ones who was in the club at the time I was in the club, yeah, they were kind of on the back foot too, thinking that I was just spoke going to stab us or was he going to hit us? You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So so when I went when I got locked up and did that twelve months, they made an executive decision to kick me out while I was still in jail. You know.
Well, I've heard the people getting suspended from school, but yeah, suspended from the BIKEI club, I suppose. Only the other one I've heard of is that man Mamas was applying for a BIKEI club and the biking club Man Mamas from the Link Cafe seeds that that, oh and the bike he said, no, it's too crazy crazy for us. But okay, so your club would sort of distance themselves from you because that didn't give you a wake up call that you maybe your life's are a bit reckless.
Yeah, it kind of did, you know, But but I don't know. I think I think it's because I was young. I thought it was a cool life to live too, you know, like especially when I had like a little fan base. You know, a lot of people looked up to me and thought I was mad and mad as you know, especially in dawn and ant.
Like, so's the wild West to start?
Yeah it is, you know, like, yeah, there's just a lot of stuff happening in the streets are down, you know.
So is that it was sort of buying into your persona. I suppose that, Yeah, I'm bad, I'm the baddest of the bad type situation.
Yeah, because because I was like real close with a lot of the most dangerous people in the territory at the time too, you know. Yeah, So and they were they were they were looking up to me, you know what I mean. So and these these blokes here, they wouldn't care. They'll put them nine straight through your throat without even thinking, you know what I mean. Yeah, you know, so I thought I'd been not upset to keep this. I better keep a bit of stay tough.
Yeah yeah, yeah, we're all made.
Yeah, so you know, I'll save me a knife and the neck anyway, Jesus.
Okay, it's a tough tough life. You're talking. How did you get back in?
Yeah, So there's a controversy in the club a few of the members from down South and that were a bit upset about them because they obviously they told a little bit of FIBs about about why I allegedly left and stuff like that, and I was like, no, I didn't leave. I got kicked out, you know. And yeah, a couple of the fellows that I got along with in the club down Sowth come up and we had
a meeting and they invited me to the meeting. We had a yarn and they said, oh, do you want to come back in as sergeant at arms.
Right, okay, describe the role of sergeant and arms people. Yeah.
Yeah, So it's just like pretty much you're enforce, make sure you don't enforce all the club policies, protect the president, you know, so you're the president's right own man. Anything happens to him, you know, like you're the one that's getting done for it, you know, so you know, does the basic role of him, you know, like just yeah.
I see. It's almost like a poisoned chalice of sergeant and arms now, isn't it. Because you've got to stand up. As you said, you're the enforcer, so you're going to be in the forefront of anything that goes down.
Yeah, you're the front. You're in the front of the line, you know what I mean, Like if anything goes down, any any dramas, anything wars, anything, you know, people after the club or people are dirty on you for this, well dirty on your members for this. You know, like
you're the you're the main man. Like to go there and sort it, you know, so you know, and it puts you in a bit of a position, you know, like you're like I said, like the anxiety and that stuff like that, the paranoid that comes with all that too.
You know, like when you're pulling up that shops at the petrol station and that you know, car pulls up and the boughs are next to you or behind you, and it's the windows are tinted, you know, like you don't know if you know to grab a weapon or not in case you know, there's somebody it's like your enemy or you're an enemy of your mate, you know what I mean. That's that's so, and so he hangs around, he hangs around old mate. You know, let's get him. You know.
The way you're describing describing the life, it doesn't sound like a great life to me.
Like, no no, no, you know it is.
It's Yeah, I think it's it's good someone that's lived the life talking about it, and yeah, others will have to learn learn their own lessons, but this is your experience, and there's a lot of pressure and stress. They talk about pressure and stress in different environments, but being the sergeant arms and the OMCG is yeah, yeah, you've been waiting for the door, waiting for anything.
When you one hundred percent and you're not the biggest The biggest issue I had in there too, And in the end, which is one of the biggest reasons why I left her, is every single prison stint I did, or every single fight that ever did I was with the club was for somebody else's dramas, not mine.
Yeah.
Yeah, And I thought I'm making all these enemies, but all these other fellows are the ones causing all the dramas. Because there's six foot tall bulletproof and on the roads or whatever like that. Why can't they fight their bown battle? You know, they're the ones that got themselves into that ship. Yeah, like, let's get let's tell them to get themselves out of it, you know what I mean?
Makes sense?
Yeah? Yeah, And then I just yelled, thought, fuck, I'm going to get murdered and that or whatever like that for somebody else's bullshit, you know. I mean, I've had enough, you know.
Okay, Well it came to a bit of a end in that the offense that you ended up doing ten years ten years for. Tell us about that.
Yeah, so that there was a bit of a war going on in the club against another lad who was an associate I've asked, but was with another club, right, so he like, you know, he was ono on him for years and you know, Wheels mates at one stage, and he ended up owing me a bit of money and so I went there to go get the money and he didn't have it. So he didn't have it, And then I gave him a couple of chances he
didn't have, so I punched him around. I gave him my hiding, and then as I left, he caught up a few people and was running me down, putting me on the dog and you know, saying you know, we can't this and that, you know. So I didn't like that, so I went back, gave him another hiding the next day and then told him just just leave it now, just shut your mouth, just leave it at that. Then I went back and then yeah, he kept going again.
And then another person I didn't even know, but they're friends with my nephew come and told me, Hey, you don't know me, Can I talk to you? And I was like, yeah, yeah, nah, No, I heard that fellow, you know, like he's saying this is this and that about you, and I was like oh. And then I thought I was just going to leave it, you know, But then my housemate of times like, no, no, we can't do that, you know, We've got to go get him. I was like, can we get a feed? First? We
went passed through Macas and went there. But what did Yeah, there went to Maccas and went down there. And but what I didn't realize is that, for some reason, it just felt weird, like I set up the whole time. And as I've walked in to walk down to his workship because he lived in an industrial area, he wasn't in there. I thought, Oh, that's weird. But then as the sun was kind of going down and I've seen his headlights coming like not I couldn't hear the car moving,
but I can see the headlights coming up. It was a big, big road, you know, and I looked. I walked down and looked down, and I seen his high lucks just sitting there in the middle of the road and like facing me. And so I started walking towards him and done a twelve, showed him that I had no weapons, you know, and told him to get out the car. You don't just have another smash, you know. And yeah, our first gear, second gear, third gear, and just hit me, just ran me over clean over you.
Yeah.
And then I remember, still getting stunned. I hit the ground. He's locked the brakes up, and I thought, like I couldn't move, couldn't hear, like everything was ringing, but I could see what was going on, Like my vision slowly started coming back again, and he was looking at me through the window, you know, And I thought, no, he's going to double back and come and run me over
to finish me off, you know. And I managed to start moving my fingers, my toes, and as I pushed off the ground, I just felt jelly, like my whole left side of my body was just there was something wrong. Yeah, And I coughed up a heap of blood on the road, and I thought, said, that's my lung, you know, like something's happened to I'm punched my lung. And then I yelled out to my housemail's brow so you could get
me to the hospital. Said I'm dying, and he's like no, no, And we both started laughing, you know, because because I got myself off the ground, you know, like he's like nah. And then he come over towards me and I said, bro, And as I started talking to him, like I was spitting blood into his in his face. So nah, I said, I'm dying, bro, like I know, I'm dying. You have
to get me to the hospital. So we went back to his car, jumped in his car, and as we jumped in his car, Old Mates followed us, and he kept ramming us the whole way as we're driving to Parmas a Medical Center. And then yeah, I thought, nah no, like it was hurting every little every breath you name it. Like the man of pain I went through was just excruciating. And I just told him, you know, like, nah, pull the brakes up, ram him, you know, so ram him back.
I said, We've got to do something. So my mate's chucked it in reverse and we've rammed him and then he's taken off and gave us enough time to get to the medical center. And then as soon as we got there, he's jumped out emergency button on the wall. They've all run out, and I had to get help out into the stretcher and the ambulance rocked up. I was just yeah, I was I've never been in that
much pain in my life. And then the paramedics rocked up, chucked me in the back, cud all my clothes off, strapped me to the machines, and then we've just paced it, you know, and they're like even there's one bloke driving, one bloke in the back with me, and he even said straight out to I remember him talking to the driving. He's like, you need to get there, you need to hurry, you need to push it. You know, we're losing, we're
losing him. And he goes, I need to do it now, I need to do an a we haven't got any time, and he's like, yep, just do it, buff and I was gone, you know, and that's all I remember. And I woke up and in the emergency department and were waiting, like getting rushed down to surgery, and there was two detectives from Major Crimes are standing over there, and they're like, oh, Shannon, Shannon, you know, like do you want to do you want to tell us? Tell us who did it? Tell us
who did it? And I said, I still remember, I was like, no, go get fucked.
I heard that comment before.
Yeah, I was like, you know, straight out, I was like, get fuck your dogs, you know. And then they're like, don't you want to know don't you want to justice? Like your pop not going to survive this accident, you know, like this you're probably going to die, Like wouldn't you want the person who'd done this, you know, getting getting getting thrown in jail? And I was like, fuck off your dogs, you know, and so yeah, yeah, you know,
and yeah, no bloody. They rushed me to the hospital. Yeah, and then when I woke up, I woke up I was in a crama, fighting for my life. I woke up with getting chebes pulled out of my throat and seven broken or broken to every rib and my left side my body, both my shoulder blades, tore my tendons and my shoulders and my knee. Yeah yeah you got me good. You know, three my ribs went through my lungs. So yeah, and then yeah, that I was. I woke up an ICU and then we thought it was over.
You know, if the doctor's surgeon's like, no, now we got it, it's all good, you'd be good to go. And I was in there for another three or four days before they took me down to recovery would And then that night they took me down. I went into shock again, and just lucky, about eleven o'clock at night, one of the nurses were coming to do the ops, and I woke up about ten o'clock because I was
feeling sick. I thought this is weird, you know, And when they've come in to do the ops, they're like, oh, hey, are you going to started talking and then they sat there. Lucky, they sat there for about ten minutes having he under me, and I just went into shock and I couldn't breathe.
And then they've gone up hit the emergency button on the wall, and I remember still as soon as they hit that button on the wall, all the lights in that whole floor went off except for the lift, the one to the lift where the surgeon come to my room. And then they ran in. There was just surgeons and nurses everywhere, and they're just like no, what he's lost.
I lost about four and a half liters of blood and they don't know where else I was bleeding internally, and they didn't know where I was bleeding from, and so they started rushing me down to surgery and then yeah, that was it. They threw me on the theater and I was out, and then I woke up with even more tubes hanging out of me. And then yeah, there was a lengthy recovery that one too, Yeah, with the staples and all that all around the halfway around my body,
our nitches. In the hospital, I think I was in there for about five five weeks.
For five weeks, yeah, all right, and that's a precursor to what ended up doing ten years, yeah, in prison. So what you get out of the hospital.
Yeah, yeah, So when I got out of hospital, I finally got discharged from hospital. We went back to my house and I think I was only there for about a day, maybe two days, and one I got a message, an actual message from one of my nephews saying, well, as I've got to tell you something, and I was like, what's that And he's like the bloke who ran you over?
You know.
We just went around to his house. He asked for you know, like to get a heap of boys and come around there and have a meeting. And I was like, oh, eh, and yeah, what's that? So what you know, He's like yeah, and there was about you like he's offering to pay him in drugs, Yeah, to run through your house and get your way your bed ridden you know.
Oh so it is still after yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I was like, oh really, and he's like yeah, And I was like, oh, I haven't got any weapons yet. You know, I could barely move. So what I did, right, I thought, you know, I'm going to go and purchase some machetes and axes and keep them on my bed so if anybody runs through, I'm just going to attack them, you know, like we'll do what I can. And so we did that. We ended up doing that and went back.
When we got back home, you know, I took on my back nighttime, so I took my pain meds and I told everyone, told my housemate, and I said, no,
I'm going to sleep now. So as I've gone to sleep, my housemates caught up a few of his mates who's rocked up because they thought these fellows were going to run through the house and they've all gotten drunk, and they thought it was a good idea to go grab all those weapons I just purchased with my own card to go run through their work shed first and attack them.
You know.
So because I purchased it with my own card, that's what that's where the detectives in Darwin linked me to it and set and charge me with the attempted murder, saying that I did.
It right, and so that that crew that came from your place, that took the weapons from your place, went to the workshop or wherever yeah dude was hanging out and went to do him over or bash him or what.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Well they absolutely destroyed one of the fellows that was in there, like cut a bit of his vertebrae of unless I think he lost Nellie Nelly lost all every single finger, fractured, skull, brain injuries. Yeah,
they really messed him up. And you know, the reason why I purchased those weapons with my card was simple fact that I knew that if I tried hiding the fact that I was buying those weapons, then detectives up there would have been like, well, no, we're gonna We're going to charge him with murder.
You know, yeah, I know you end up pleading pleading guilty to the offense. So what I picked up in what it's been reported in the media reckless endangering serious harm and unlawful entry with intent to assault armed. So it was like a conspiracy that you're you're involved in. Yeah, yeah, because you've purchased purchased the weapons a couple of things, And we had had a chat the other day and you said, you know, this is how am I again
to defend that. If I explained the story you've just explained here, and you rock up the court with your taboos, you're the sergeant and the arms, it's going to be a pretty hard case to argue. So you you made the decision to plead guilty to it. Yeah.
Yeah. Well so under the Northern Territory Mandatory Sentencing Acts, if I was to get found guilty on having any knowledge that the crime had been committed and didn't notify the police, yeah, I would have got twenty five years in prison. Automatically. I could not fight or argue that at all. And one of my mates actually got that like four or five years before. So the only way I could have avoided that was by pleading guilty to it. So I had to plead guilty to that crime even
though I didn't know that. I didn't even know that them fella's done that to two days after it happened, and then before I knew it does flash bombs going off inside my house, lasers all over me, and I'm getting dragged out, zip tied by TRG and tell.
Us about that. So you're recovering at home and then yeah, early hours of the morning or yeah.
It was like I think it was like five in the morning. They've said little explosives up to our glass door. Wasn't just like it was yeah, full like sa s his bank bang, and it was just I still remember like the flash bombs going off, and I was like I was just stunned, you know. And then as soon as my door got kicked open, you know, I just seen just green dots all over me and I just like,
don't move. Dome Boom flipped me over, zip tied my legs, my ankles and my my wrists to the back and grabbed me by my my jip ties around my ankles and just dragged me cleaning out down the stairs out to the front before all my broken ribs, everything, and and I still remember it from TG had the barrel of his gun and he was hitting me in the head with it, and go, I did a fucking move. I did a fucking move, your dog and hitting me in the side of the head with it.
You know, Yeah, how that make you feel? I think it's pretty obvious how it make make you feel the way that the way that you've relaid the story to me in regards to the offense, and it's what's been rapported in the media, because I was reading the media reports on them, and it's not this similar to what was reported in the fact. Sheepe for the core that
you play the guilty. Couple of questions and just clarify this that the man that was attacked the night your crew went to get get him at the workshop, that wasn't the person that ran you over. How do you feel about that, like he's the wrong, wrong, wrong person.
Yeah, Well, to be honest, when you live that life, they're living in that house and you want that person that's in that house.
Yeah, everybody's getting got okay.
So and because of what happened, obviously his housemate that was in that house.
That's the rules.
Yeah, it was like, yeah, well he's he's a house mate, he's a friend of his. Yeah, so that's I'm guessing that's that's pretty much what happened. That's the reason why, you know, that's the reason.
Why I suppose the flip to that is that, yeah, why he's caught up in what happened happened to him. You're also caught up because you're associated with the crew that have gone there, regardless of the fact that it wasn't your plan or it wasn't your idea.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's exactly right, you know.
And so so did you get to get BA? Was it straight to straight the prison?
Straight to prison? No bail. I tried about four or five times just to get bail, and even told my lawyer and that what happened like, and he's like, oh, you wouldn't do a statement? I said, Well, no, I said one, I said, I said, how could I do a statement? I said, but I didn't even know who was involved or when it happened. And until two days after, I said, I still don't even know the full story.
I wasn't there, you know, So how could I do a statement saying saying you know, like I was this person, that person, this person when I was at home in bed all night. Yeah, I wouldn't even know who did it anyway, you know, but I just told him no way in the world. You know, you're looking at life in prison. What are you going to do. Like I said, I'm just going to plead guilty, like it's I put
myself to be honest, like I bought those weapons. If I never bought those weapons, that never were happen, it wouldn't have happened. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Do you look look the Shannon I'm talking to now, I'm not the Shandon back in those days. You look at that and go, okay, well, yeah, I was rolling the dice. I was playing, playing on the edge, and something was going to break eventually. Do you look at it that way when you look back at the life that you were living at the time.
Yeah, yeah, Well, when I look back at the life that I was living at the time, we definitely there some hairy situations and stuff like that. You know, I thought far outlight, either I'm going to get murdered or well, you know, like I'm going to go to jail for a long time for for it, you know what I mean.
So you know, we almost fulfill all the prophecies of you either end up dead or in jail, you for life.
Yeah, I almost did both, almost did life for both, you know what I mean. So yeah, and I look back at it now like I think that's just stupid, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely definitely look back at it now and thought far out load. But but at that time, you know, it was like even though you had that like feeling and stuff like that, you know, you just kept going, you know, like you just look fuck it.
Well, the chat that we've had now, you've given us a good sense of what was going through your mind and that the attitude, and I thank you for your openness and in talking about okay, well this is the way I rolled, and this is this is the consequences of we'll take a break now. When we get back. In part two, we're going to talk about the time in jail and then was what was the watershed moment made you turn your life around and all the good
work that you're doing now. So I apologize to anyone that's switching off after part one thinking what have we got here? Let me assure you. Shannon has turned his life around, and that's what we're going to explore, explore when we get back. And also about the violence that you experienced and dished out in prison and then when you decided just to make a change to your life and how that came about.
So yeah, no worries.
Okay, take a break.