Prison whistleblower reveals how bikie boss Brent Reker ended up dead in his cell

A prison whistleblower has shed light on the final desperate days of a notorious Finks bikie boss Brent ‘BJ’ Reker before he was found dead in jail.

The 35-year old national president was found hanging at the Ravenhall Correctional Centre in December 2019 after barricading himself in his cell.

While his suicide is the subject of a Victorian coronial inquest, a former guard at the jail has told Daily Mail Australia prison staff had ‘blood on their hands’ over his death. 

The guard, who wished to remain anonymous, had worked closely with Reker before he hanged himself after being transferred to a unit for troublesome inmates. 

‘He was a massive, massive suicide risk. He tried to kill himself multiple times while he was at the Melbourne Assessment Prison, and that’s a maximum security prison that is run specifically for those with mental health issues,’ she said. 

Reker had become suicidal after the Director of the Office of Public Prosecutions won an appeal in the Supreme Court that saw his bail revoked in February 2019. 

The bikie had initially been bailed over an alleged bashing, described as a revenge attack over the release of naked photos of his friend Tara Egglestone online. 

Brent Reker as he looked before having his face inked. Reker had previously spent time in a Perth jail after being convicted of a standover 

Reker allegedly arranged for Finks bikies to target the home of Nick Gold, whom another co-accused, Tara Egglestone (pictured), claimed he posted naked photos of her online

Reker’s one year old son Saint had been due to undergo surgery just days after Justice Christopher Beale revoked his bail. 

‘He was doing really well on the outside. He started addressing his mental health issues, was trying to get out of the club and got into some legitimate work,’ the whistleblower said. 

‘He hadn’t done anything wrong. The OPP were just Gung ho that he shouldn’t have got bail in the first place.’

On returning to prison, the former guard claimed Reker was ‘livid’ with his incarceration. 

‘He made it very, very clear that any chance he got if he was on his own, that he was going to kill himself,’ she said. 

Last month, the Coroner’s Court heard Reker’s first attempt saw him try to hang himself using a torn shirt before prison guards cut him down. 

He attempted suicide again the following day, this time using a smock. 

Eight days later he threatened to kill himself again. 

‘Staff identified that Mr Reker had exposed wire from an electric jug in his cell and threatened to electrocute himself by placing the jug in the cell toilet and touching the water,’ Senior Constable Nation said.

At the time of his death, Reker had been in talks with the Finks to leave the club, find legitimate work and had even begun getting his tattoos removed.

The former staffer claimed Reker would use his formidable size to barricade his cell. 

It was a tactic he used to prevent guards getting to him on the day he ultimately took his own life. 

‘It wasn’t a new strategy that he’d just come up with. They were very well aware that he did those things to the point that he would make it very difficult for officers to enter his cell if they had to get in there,’ she said. 

The former staffer claimed Reker should never have been moved from MAP to the medium security Ravenhall Correctional Centre. 

Reker, 35, was on remand facing charges over an alleged bashing, described as a revenge attack over the release of naked photos of a woman online

Reker (middle) pictured with other members of the Finks motorcycle gang

Brent Reker (pictured without his infamous face paint) had been a member of Perth’s Rock Machine bikie club before moving to Melbourne and heading The Finks 

At the time, Reker’s life had been at risk over his moves to abandon the outlaw club. 

‘Ravenhall is great in theory, but a lot of the staff are very young, very inexperienced and it’s not very well run in comparison to what it could be,’ the whistleblower said. 

In the days before his suicide, Reker complained of being bored and warned prison staff he would self harm over a cancelled dental appointment. 

‘Do we have to slash up to get what we want?’ he told a guard. 

Reker later told a prison doctor he and other inmates all planned to ‘slash-up’ if their demands weren’t met. 

The court heard Reker had been desperate to obtain a prison job and threatened violence if he didn’t get his way. 

Fed up, prison bosses agreed to move Reker to a unit away from other inmates. 

The proposed move saw Reker swallow shards of metal when guards came to collect him. 

Upon his move to the Forbes unit, Reker told staff he had no plans to self harm. 

He was placed under hourly observations, which quickly identified trouble was afoot. 

The court heard Reker had covered his cell in toilet paper and blocked his cell door with a mattress.

When guards rushed around to a rear window to see what was happening inside, they saw a chair wedged in Reker’s shower. 

The court heard guards then forced their way into Reker’s cell where they saw him laying on the floor with a ligature around his neck. 

He could not be revived. 

Brent Reker made multiple attempts to end his life in prison, the coroner heard 

The prison whistleblower said Reker ought never have been moved to the unit given his fragile state of mind. 

‘He should have been in a unit that’s monitored 24/7 with no hanging points, without anything that can help him facilitate a suicide and there are those units, they exist and they have inmates in those units all the time in nothing but a gown so they can’t use their clothing to hang themselves,’ she said. 

‘There are padded cells, no hanging points, no electrical points – none of that. He absolutely should have been in one of those … he was a ticking time bomb. 100 percent.’

The former staffer claimed most prison guards couldn’t care less about the safety of inmantes. 

‘They see prisoners as scum of the earth and the world would be better off without them, so they have no issue when someone suicides, let alone someone like Brent,’ she said. 

Reker’s history of mental anguish was well known to prison staff, the source said. 

‘The amount of trauma that guy had been through was ridiculous – the things he had experienced and seen as a child was horrendous, so once you put someone that has had those experiences in a confined space, all those things start resurfacing,’ she said. 

‘They become compounded and on top of everything else it’s quite an expected reaction for people to not cope well. Add his persona, his reputation – he wasn’t going to be the type of person to go lay on a couch and speak to someone about his feelings.’

In an interview in 2018, Reker told Daily Mail Australia:  ‘Bikie clubs are the last stand for human rights – in Australia no one is allowed to do anything anymore. 

‘We – just like everyone else – just want to hang out with our mates and go for a drink on Friday night without being told we can’t.’

Reker admitted ‘the way he looks’ often caught the attention of police. 

Reker was due appear at the County Court on June 29, 2020 for a final directions hearing for his case. 

The coronial matter will return to court next month. 

A spokesperson for GEO Group Australia, which operates Ravenhall, said it was limited in what could be said while the matter was the subject of a coronial inquest. 

‘GEO extends its condolences to Mr Reker’s family,’ she stated. 

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