Bikie women are considered club ‘property’ and have even less status than motorbikes inside the twisted world of outlaw motorcycle gangs.
The secret life of bikie women and the absurd rules they must follow has been revealed in a police dossier.
It details how gang laws dictate the hierarchy of women who ‘belong’ to a club or individual bikie, as well as the heightened risk of violence and sexual assault they face.
In one horror case the wife of a bikie in Western Australia had her stomach forcibly tattooed to show she was the ‘property of’ her husband.
Wearing a ‘Property of’ patch is more common among bikie partners in the US (above) but does occur in Australia where women declare they either belong to their man or his club
Rules for women who in relationships with bikie gang members dictate that they can never be a member themselves and rate below the club, the men and their motorbikes
Police photo of the tattoo Coffin Cheater gang member Mark Hinchcliffe had forcibly tattooed on his former wife Jacqueline Margaret Neville after she had an affair with another man
While modern bikie wives often look glamorous in their designer clothes, the reality is they are treated like second class citizens who can’t actually join the clubs or take part in social nights and ‘runs’.
The rules for women in Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCGs) are part of a dossier filed in the NSW Supreme Court during an application by police to have the Comanchero’s national boss Allan Meehan – known at the ‘Bathrobe bikie’ – placed under a serious crime order.
Detective Sergeant Bruce Groenewegen – a senior detective who has studied the rules governing bikie gang women in Australia and overseas – states in the dossier tendered in court how women are ‘generally regarded as secondary to the organisation, membership and motorcycles’.
‘Bikies place the club… members and their bikes before women in order of importance,’ he said.
Detective Groenewegen said bikie women in Australia sometimes wear a club vest or jacket with ‘Property of’ and the name of their bikie or his motorcycle gang, although this practice is more common in the US.
The grim statistics are that women in relationships with bikie gang members are 640 per cent more like to suffer domestic and family violence, including 428 per cent more incidents.
The female partner of a Mongols motorcycle gang member in the US wears a ‘Property of’ patch on a run through the city with bikies from the OMCG
The bikie gang dossier which includes rules for women partners of members which exclude them from going on ‘runs’ (above) and rate them lower than motorcycles
Jesse Vella embraces a woman at the funeral of his father Gino in January, just months before he patched over to the Comanchero gang headed by another former Rebel, Allan Meehan
One particularly horrific case involved Western Australia Coffin Cheater bikie Mark Raymond Hinchliffe after he found out his wife Jacqueline Margaret Neville had a fling with another man.
Hinchcliffe whipped her with a Coffin Cheaters belt, shaved her head and poured boiling water over her, and then had her stomach forcibly tattooed with the words ‘Property of Mark Hinchcliffe’.
Neville ended up shooting dead her lover and serving 15 years in prison.
‘A woman in a relationship with a member is “off limits” to anyone else in the club, until such time as the relationship ends,’ Det Sgt Groenewegen said.
‘Many OMCGs regard a relationship with another member’s woman as an offence as serious as disrespect to the club’s three-piece patch.’
Det Sgt Groenewegen said that taking up with a gang member’s woman was, in many clubs, akin to stealing and punishable by serious assault.
‘In the Bandidos for example, the rules provide for a member’s right to dictate a designated period before which a woman who he previously had a relationship with is allowed to go to the clubhouse again, or before which other members may court her affections.’
Women dressed in black attend the funeral of Gino Vella in western Sydney early this year after the senior Rebel died unexpectedly and was farewelled at one of the biggest bikie gatherings in recent memory
The Bandidos Rules say it is a bikie’s right to dictate the length of time his ex-girlfriend may be excluded from the clubhouse and/or declared ‘off limits’ to other members after the relationship ends.
‘Other OMCGs make specific references to the exclusion of women from membership or access to information about the organisation. Hells Angels rules refer specifically to men being members.’
The Rebels gang’s constitution specifically excludes women from social nights and ‘runs’, the organised mass show of strength by bikies on an annual ride which is mandatory unless you’re in hospital or jail and punishable if you don’t go.
Det Sgt Groenewegen cited a rule book of the Mt Druitt chapter of the Rebels warning nominees ‘not to mess with another members women’ at the risk of being ‘severely dealt with’.
The Rebels gang’s constitution specifically excludes women from ‘runs’, the organised mass show of strength by bikies on an annual ride which is mandatory unless you’re in hospital or jail
One bikie gang in Australia tells prospective members to ‘keep your women in line’ but warns against ‘undue harassment of other brothers women’ advising ‘look but don’t touch’.
Different bikie gangs (above members of five of Australia’s biggest clubs) have constitutions prohibiting women from becoming members or wearing club patches
The Lone Wolf Rules for nominees tell prospective members to ‘keep your women in line’ but warns against ‘undue harassment of other brothers women’ advising ‘look but don’t touch’.
The Lone Wolf prohibit women from riding with the club or carrying members as pillion passengers on motorcycles.
Women are not permitted to wear the club three-piece patch, or the ‘1%’ outlaw patch often seen on bikies’ vests or jackets.
And women ‘are often subjected to violence by members of OMCGs and that violence is often not reported to police’.
There is also a hierarchy among the bikie women, with an Old Lady – a wife – at the top.
Incidents of violence towards women by bikies cited by Groenewegen are mostly between gang members and their partners or ex-partners, but one historic sexual assault at a gang clubhouse involved a women and bikies she’d never met.
On July 25, 1997 an 18-year-old went with friends from a Coffs Harbour hotel back to the Finks Coffs Harbour Chapter clubhouse for a party, where they played pool and drank alcohol.
On July 25, 1997 an 18-year-old went with friends from a Coffs Harbour hotel back to the Finks Coffs Harbour Chapter clubhouse for a party and was sexually assaulted by two unidentified men
When her friends left, she stayed and played pool before going to the bathroom where a man, ‘Scotty’ grabbed her by the hair and pulled her off the toilet and forced her to perform oral sex on him.
As this was happening Scotty’s girlfriend was screaming from outside for him to stop, saying she would ‘kill’ the teenage girl.
The 18-year-old was then lured to another part of the clubhouse where another bikie, ‘Ray’, forcibly removed her jeans and underwear and forced her into having sex, while she struggled and received extensive bruising.
She woke around 4am dazed and then, possibly drugged, fell unconscious again until morning when Ray dropped her off at a local shopping centre.
In the ensuing days she received harassing phone calls suggesting she had been ‘gang banged’ by multiple men and photographs had been taken.
The girl saw a doctor and sexual assault counsellor but refused to make a police report , and no-one was charged with the assaults.
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