It was difficult to believe that the greying, gaunt-faced man staring out from the audio-visual room at Silverwater Prison yesterday was the same one who once treated the streets of Kings Cross as his personal domain. 'I'm not running from anything I've done. Police unions have rallied around Missouri Senate Bill 78, which would reinstate a Civil War-era system of state oversight. Bicycle guy is a True Blue Aussie! Id like to think (Im a good judge of character) but then everybody thinks they know something about something. The inmate who took his place was severely bashed by three other prisoners because Staunton's name card had been left on the outer door. But she then stopped and turned to confront him about comments hed made some weeks earlier, sparking an argument that was recorded on her phone. Russell Townsend, described in Royal Commission evidence as an alleged drug dealer, is a friend and gym partner. I bluffed well for a long time when I was 18. FORMER Kings Cross identity Bill Bayeh has been given a bond for making a threat involving a sex toy to Geoffrey Edelsten's ex-wife during an ugly verbal spat recorded on a smart phone. Kim Hollingsworth organises a strip show for a police charity. Akela Lacy. Yet in his own surroundings, the streets of Kings Cross, John is charming. ''He is going to work for a fruit man,'' he added. Were working to restore it. "I want to move on with my life. When Bill's business suffers as a result, tensions rise between Bill and his brother, Louis Bayeh. After almost a decade working in Kings Cross, the startling revelations of graft, corruption, drug dealing and prostitution are like office gossip to John. Today the War on Drugs continues to affect many lives in ways ranging from the trivial to the profound. No one really knew that I didnt know what I was doing, except me.. Mayor Tishaura Jones . Aware that he is being investigated by the Wood Royal Commission, Dennis Kelly dobs in Jim Egan to investigators. The lounge room, covered in thick white carpet, is clean but untidy, giving the impression of an archetypal boys house. On his first night at Long Bay jail Staunton, who was considered at risk due to his years as a policeman, was moved from his original cell. John lives here with the Tunnels restaurant manager, who was first employed as a kitchen hand at the club after moving from China to Australia six years ago. According to a defence lodged by Mr Ibrahim in November, Mr Domican - who had an attempted murder conviction overturned by the High Court - was in the "very frequent company" of Bill Bayeh in 1993 and 1994, "when he was eating, drinking, walking around and conducting business in the Kings Cross area". The Kings Cross detectives get into a confrontation with some thugs and illegally rough them up. It's not hard to understand why. California Consumer Limit the Use of My Sensitive Personal Information, California Consumer Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Bill Bayeh pleaded guilty to assaulting intensive care nurse Leanne Nesbitt The Kings Cross identity got into a heated argument with her early last year Bayeh allegedly made a threat. She grumbles because she arrived early to work on the list but was unable to get into the room. All rights reserved. Another hobby is jetskiing. In every station you get two or three corrupt coppers. Like a trash TV junkie he watches the commission on television at every opportunity. He is based in London and expects to live until he his 100. One night he found a naked woman on the meal room table performing a sex act on herself with a police baton while his fellow officers drank cans of beer. Nationwide News Pty Ltd 2023. Marks, known as 'Mr Nice', asked Staunton to join him at a table with Freddie Foreman, an old crook sometimes called the godfather of British crime. Egan and Haken organise a deal with Kassab that if Shaka and Norm turn themselves in at the Bankstown Police Station, they will get off lightly. However, his paranoia is justified as he discovers the Commission has a lot of incriminating evidence against him. The claims are the subject of Mr Domican's part-heard interlocutory application before Justice Michael Wigney to have parts of Mr Ibrahim's and Pan Macmillan's defences struck out. John has only been to his parents country of birth, Lebanon, once. Our contributors include the great investigators Bob Bottom and Al McCoy, and the wonderfully insightful Sydney artist Michael Fitzjames. It would be easy for Bill to go the wrong way but he is doing the right thing, she said. However, after going on a scuba trip with Ibrahim, Wendy starts to have second thoughts. Mr Agius persisted: Isnt it the case that you and your brother have filled the gap to the extent to which Mr Bill Bayehs industry has contracted?. John is dismissive about the context in which his relationships with colourful Kings Cross identities are viewed. He received compensation for his injuries but will not say how much, just that it wasnt a lot. He neither drinks nor smokes. Staunton writes of helping solve problems for drug dealers Bill Bayeh, who distributed cocaine and heroin in Kings Cross, and international trafficker Bruce 'Snapper' Cornwell. He died in 2005, and over 400 people attended his funeral at Redfern. Two video games stand idly on opposite sides of the room. The weekend accidents, which killed one person at Morgan Ford and Bates, and another which killed four at Forest Park and South Grand, serve as tragic reminders, Jones said, while adding that the city has to do more. One of the tensest moments of the hearing came when Redditt Hudson, a former St. Louis police officer working on diversion and alternative sentencing in Gardner's office, repeated accusations that the bill is a racist attack. He was shot three times but survived. Upon his release Staunton took himself to Bali then Amsterdam where he met two mysterious drug traffickers called Bram and Manfred who saw potential in him. I think this place is like every other place, I dont see any difference., Of his time in prison, he said: I wasnt treated very human 15 years in jail. They split and she lives overseas, although he still wears her ring on his wedding finger. Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. They are proof of a violent youth but John says simply: Theyre my scars. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. A fruit vendor gives him two nectarines for free. An old, sloping billiard table is the living rooms centrepiece, closed in on two sides by leather couches. Benny Kassab suspects that he has a rat in his ranks. What they do for their living and what they do for their business is none of my business. In custody from 1996, Bayeh was sentenced to 20 years in jail, with a non-parole period of 15 years, a sentence which the panel at yesterday's parole hearing agreed was at the higher end of the sentencing options. John Ibrahim's book, Last King of the Cross. He hated it. SYDNEY nightclub owner John Ibrahim was very young when he gave this first revealing interview. Bill and Louis Bayeh fight off threats to their drug dealing empire. Walks free from Silverwater prison after minimum 15-year term for drug trafficking expires in July 2011. Staunton was again brought unstuck by an undercover cop and was arrested in January 1997 by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Its not money thats been laundered. In the TAB John is asking around after his friend when he gestures to a tall skinny man and says quietly: The worst thing you can be in the Cross is a KX (a protected Commission witness) because everyone knows who you are.. Young waitress Kim Hollingsworth turns to prostitution after she discovers her abusive boyfriend Trent has stolen money from her. "How is branch stacking relevant to gang wars? Followed categories will be added to My News. Policing in the 1960s and 1970s: a memoir. The sun is shining and John is sparkling with good humour. He will be under as much scrutiny as anyone who runs that type of business in the Cross., Another Kings Cross detective added: We have been waiting for him to come up here when his parole conditions finished maybe for a coffee or something. We will abide by every single rule here and will be running a 100 per cent clean establishment, he said. , updated After spending the previous night watching videos with friends, John is in a buoyant mood. Instead of learning how to read books, youve got learn how to read people and see what they want from you. 'I do not have a thousand morals,' Staunton writes on page one of The Good Bloke. Asked if his brother would be able to stay out of trouble, he said ''of course''. After being released from jail, Bayeh initially indicated he was interested in opening a fruit shop. If you're a friend of mine you're there forever.'. Running a club is perfect for that sort of thing, but its not for me. Kim Hollingsworth is expelled from the Goulburn Academy for failing to disclose her work as a prostitute. He was also filmed on 12 occasions preparing some 1500 caps of cocaine, valued at $90,000. My brother Sam and I have always been pretty healthy. Sydney's Kings Cross identity Bill Bayeh, 58, has been fined $1,500 He was unaware of the ban from Star Casino when he entered the venue His lawyer on Wednesday told court the businessman was. New South Wales Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham opposed Bayeh's parole, saying he was just presenting a facade as a naive man. S03:E03 - Kingdom Come . John was 16 when he first started working on the door of Images nightclub at Parramatta. Spoils of crime Bayeh's Gladesville home. Newcomer Benny Kassab starts dealing drugs in competition with the Bayeh brothers. It was one of the first of what was to become a common form of violence and intimidation by Lebanese gangsters. Successful criminals who were not arrested often died. Of his now-shelved fruit shop plans, he said: It didnt happen. Having obtained the HSC via correspondence, she enrolls in a detective's course at Goulburn Police Academy. He supplied the drugs to those working on the front desks of his businesses, who would sell them in return for a cut of the profits. They were assisted in this by new laws, such as those enabling them to seize assets that were the proceeds of crime, and institutions, such as the New South Wales Crime Commission (which had been created in 1986), which unlike the police can force people to give evidence. When gang violence breaks out in King's Cross, John Ibrahim is placed under pressure to clean up the streets. The clubs turned over close to $6m in the six years its been there. All around the world, first and second generation immigrants often form a higher proportion of criminals than of the general population. He was arrested in 1996 after giving evidence at the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption. The 55-year-old sat, seemingly impassive, as his fate was decided, mumbling a barely audible ''thank you, God bless you'' as Judge Terence Christie of the NSW Parole Authority granted him parole after 15 years behind bars. We didnt fit in. Were working to restore it. They should never have let you out, youre a criminal.. According to John, the then owner was being stood over by local heavies and ripped off by his managers. Mr Ibrahim alleges Mr Domican has a reputation among "members of the Australian general public over the age of 35", NSW Police and the legal community, the building industry, and the pubs and clubs industry as a violent criminal, a standover man, and an associate of underworld figures. It was a very different image of Bayeh from that of his heyday. Believe it or not I did very well at school but it just wasnt for me. He was arrested in 1996 after giving evidence at the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption. Narrowly escaping a shooting in Bayeh's gaming room, John receives some advice from George Freeman. Please try again later. Under the bond for the Ms Nesbitt incident, Bayeh must continue psychological treatment for a year, Magistrate Graeme Curran told Downing Centre Local Court, noting both matters were at the lower end of seriousness. I've never hurt anyone.'. FORMER Kings Cross identity Bill Bayeh has been given a bond for making a threat involving a sex toy to Geoffrey Edelstens ex-wife during an ugly verbal spat recorded on a smart phone. Soon, Kassab becomes Bayeh's "fall guy", holding the money and drugs from Bill's deals. ', Long-time friend and former Kings Cross nightclub boss John Ibrahim sums up Staunton on the book's cover: 'When Charlie's good he's great. I paid the majority of it later. Theres corruption going on in every section where you could do somebody a good turn or a bad turn. All the old forces of the King's Cross drug trade have been imprisoned and corrupt police have been cleaned out of the New South Wales police. Everyones miserable. After leaving school John began working in Kings Cross at the Tunnel Cabaret nightclub. John was 19 when he became part-owner of the Tunnel but he had already armed himself with a formidable collection of contacts and friends. Bayehs business partner and the venues licensee Tania Eve, who he has known for more than 30 years, was equally as vigilant on illegal behaviour, describing Love Machine as a cabaret and burlesque gentlemans club. Tom Domican, left, is suing John Ibrahim for defamation. ''It is clear from a number of remarks made by the sentencing judge that the sentence was intended to be punitive rather than rehabilitative,'' Judge Christie said. They were abandoned after the Missouri Supreme Court cited constitutional and due process questions. 9NEWS reports the 56-year-old reportedly became involved in a heated argument with Leanne Nesbitt, now an intensive care nurse, outside St Vincent's Hospital last night at about 6.30pm. I just want to get on with my life, he said. 23:42 GMT 22 Jul 2019 He was also accused of being in the company of Melbourne underworld figure Mick Gatto. Cigarettes make me dizzy, he admits. 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