Asked if his brother would be able to stay out of trouble, he said ''of course''. John has only been to his parents country of birth, Lebanon, once. 'I just wanted to get straight into it. His defence claims that, in about 1997, following Bill Bayeh's arrest on drug charges, for which he was ultimately jailed for 15 years, Louis Bayeh continued to take payments for "protecting" strip clubs and other businesses in the area. Bananas, they go off very quick.. 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. If you dont own a business there (Kings Cross) you could not understand how much its affected it, he says. 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". It primarily depicts the organized crimes in Kings Cross and the police corruption leading up to the 1995 Wood Royal Commission. John, it seems, is inclined to oversimplify the details of his existence. Pan Macmillan's defence claims it could also be inferred Mr Domican was a violent criminal from a 2002 conviction in Western Australia after he pleaded guilty to threatening to break the neck of a police officer. The 60-year-old is the 'good bloke' of the title and says he lives by two simple rules: Loyalty is everything, and what is morally right and what is legal are not always the same thing. It is a thirteen-part series loosely based on real events that stemmed from the mile-long nightclub/ red light district in the Sydney suburb of Kings Cross, also known as the "Golden Mile", between 1988 and 1999. Soon Staunton was moving millions of dollars in cash across continents for the Pacific Mariner Cartel in which he was known by the nickname 'The Prince'. It typifies Johns blithe attitude to life. I knew them all and they wouldnt have been standing over my business. Infrastructure work is very complicated. The wars over but the wars still inside the people. In every station you get two or three corrupt coppers. Tom Domican, left, is suing John Ibrahim for defamation. Youll find we are very boring. Bayeh was arrested in 1996 for dealing heroin and cocaine from the once-notorious Cosmopolitan Cafe in Kings Cross. Find out more about our policy and your choices, including how to opt-out. 'I've accepted everything I've done in life. The 1990s saw the rise of many other powerful and violent Lebanese figures, including Louis Bayehs brother Bill. Political staffer Sally Rugg has ramped up her legal fight against teal independent Monique Ryan after an attempt at mediation failed. Kim Hollingsworth continues to risk her life to expose Eddie Gould's corruption. Like a trash TV junkie he watches the commission on television at every opportunity. Staunton travelled to Atlantic City in 1989 as part of boxer Jeff 'Hitman' Harding's entourage when Harding defeated Dennis Andries for the WBC light heavyweight title. This is my opinion, sir, believe me on my babys life. But the relationship went through a rocky patch in 1985 when Hakim gave permission for certain men to put gaming machines into an ethnic club. Louis Bayeh was himself sentenced in 1997 to four years jail for perverting the course of justice. Like a prince in plain clothes John, 25, is slouched in a chair at a Victoria Rd cafe talking to three friends about his club, The Tunnel, which is undergoing renovations. I just want to get on with my life, he said. Perhaps the best known gang of the late 1990s was the extremely vicious Dannys Boys, led by Danny Karam, who engaged in knee-cappings and drive-by shootings, including one of Lakemba Police Station in 1998. Bill Bayeh arrested after nurse assault . Thats the business were in. Mr Domican is suing Mr Ibrahim and his publisher Pan Macmillan Australia for damages in the Federal Court over his best-selling 2017 memoir, Last King of the Cross, claiming the tell-all book wrongly paints him as a hitman, violent criminal and a drug dealer. He was recorded instructing one of his standover men to tell a fellow drug dealer, Russell Townsend, that he ''cannot sell the nose thing any more and if he will not he will get a beating'' and warning another that there would be ''big bang bang soon''. Once I was in, the club paid for itself. Walks free from Silverwater prison after minimum 15-year term for drug trafficking expires in July 2011. I came in there and cut it all out. In 2001, he was sentenced to another three years after pleading guilty to demanding money with menaces from two brothel keepers and for supplying cocaine and heroin. "I just want to make a living like everybody else," said Bayeh. S03:E06 - Women in Uniform. When Bill's business suffers as a result, tensions rise between Bill and his brother, Louis Bayeh. What they do for their living and what they do for their business is none of my business. Bill has 1 job listed on their profile. Everybody knows everybody. Please try again later. 'I've met the good, the bad, and the ugly, the famous and the infamous, and for what it's worth, there's good and bad in all of them. Called to give evidence about his relationship with police and criminals including Bayeh, Staunton refused to speak and was jailed for contempt. 'I'm not running from anything I've done. Jones hopes the end result of that work will resemble what has unfolded on a corridor not far from the site of the bill signing on the 3100 block of North Grand. People just dont want to go there. 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. Former Sydney drug kingpin Bill Bayeh has been granted parole after more than a decade in jail. 23:42 GMT 22 Jul 2019 Frank Hakim, who emigrated to Australia at the age of 20 or so, was the first prominent Lebanese criminal. His first job after school was in the clearing department with the Commonwealth Bank where he fantasised about stealing pallets of cash. Kim Hollingsworth is expelled from the Goulburn Academy for failing to disclose her work as a prostitute. Soon, Kassab becomes Bayeh's "fall guy", holding the money and drugs from Bill's deals. Impressed by Ibrahim, Freeman offers him a job as a bouncer. Ill show you how to do it, she tells John. As a young constable Charlie Staunton dreamed of one day becoming commissioner of the New South Wales Police Force. 2023, Charter Communications, all rights reserved. One of those cases of stolen whisky was subsequently planted in Staunton's own car and he left the force rather than implicate anyone else. He is vehement when he says he does not deal drugs. Staunton had witnessed police corruption since his earliest days on the force and it was internal treachery which brought his career undone one night in 1987. Bill Bayeh was jailed for 15 years for drug trafficking in the 1990s.Nick Moir Mr Ibrahim also alleges Mr Domican opened his coat to display his gun while telling associates he would "take care" of a rival drug dealer on a Saturday night in 1993. Bill Bayeh and John Ibrahim would go on to play major roles in his life. He hated it. In the mid-1960s he obtained the protection of Lennie McPherson and proceeded to provide protection himself to Lebanese and other ethnic gaming clubs. Although wealthy, good looking and self-assured, John is, in many ways, an ineligible bachelor. 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. It is pretty interesting, especially given his history here.. Its all who you know. S03:E03 - Kingdom Come . Mr Ibrahim's lawyers claim in court documents that Mr Domican, a former ALP figure, accompanied Louis Bayeh to a meeting at the Cosmopolitan Cafe in Kings Cross, where the latter allegedly told Mr Ibrahim, "Who do you think you are, trying to take over the Cross?". John Ibrahim's book, Last King of the Cross. All you need to do is get your foot in the door, John says. Successful criminals who were not arrested often died. 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. Bayeh, 56, was allegedly involved in an argument with Mr Edelsten's ex-wife Leanne Nesbitt, who is a nurse at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney. To an outsider, the life of John Ibrahim is surreal. You get an education at school but it doesnt help you when youre out dealing with people. When gang violence breaks out in King's Cross, John Ibrahim is placed under pressure to clean up the streets. Danny Karam, a nightclub bouncer who later became one of Bayeh's standover men, remembered that Bayeh was so broke in 1991 he was forced to ask him for $50. Friends are very overrated, he says, taking a long gulp of his coffee. In effect he was saying the detectives had engaged in noble corruption the use of illegal means by otherwise honest police to convict known criminals. Coles has announced it has scrapped a major Covid-19 requirement for all its staff. He took charge of $23million in Montreal and ferried $1million through Turkey into Pakistan wearing spray tan and a dark wig. Commission investigator Gerry Lloyd hires Shaka, a former lieutenant to Benny Kassab, to wear a wire to expose the corrupt police working with Bill Bayeh. Johns older brother Hassam, known as Sam, told the Royal Commission he had been helping people out, including protecting drug dealers, around the Cross for years. I went back home for three days (last year) with Charlie Staunton. Police have attended the home of a 10-month-old baby who appeared in shocking footage sucking on and inhaling the fumes of a vape. Good cops, bad cops, strippers, gamblers, gunmen, dealers, bouncers, dreamers and bagmen. Twenty years later Staunton was locked up in a Canadian prison for his role in an international drug cartel which moved 25 tonnes of cannabis resin worth $1billion. After leaving school John began working in Kings Cross at the Tunnel Cabaret nightclub. Trevor Haken's paranoia reaches an all-new high. I couldnt wait to get out of there and get amongst it. But the parole authority agreed to release him anyway, saying his 15-year sentence was lengthy compared to crimes of a similar nature. Daily Mail Australia is appealing after a court ruled the online publication had defamed Erin Molan in an article and tweets which falsely portrayed her as racist. Download it here. I know everyone involved in the nightclub industry and they all know me. Even his late nights out are not wild ones, says John. Former Sydney drug kingpin Bill Bayeh has been granted parole after more than a decade in jail. Bill Bayeh was in 1996 sentenced to 15 years jail for heroin and cocaine dealing. Bram and Manfred had never told Staunton the details of their business but US and Canandian authorities alleged they had trafficked 25 tonnes of Pakistani hashish worth about $1billion. St. Louis police gather at the scene of a shooting in the 1800 block of Cass Avenue on Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022, where police say a man was shot in the chest. New King's Cross beat constable, Wendy Jones, quickly crosses paths with John Ibrahim and the attraction is mutual. In London the pair jumped the queue to get into Wimbledon when Ibrahim bought tickets for the 16 tennis fans behind them. His period of dominance in Kings Cross was the inspiration for the third series of the TV drama Underbelly. At 15 John was stabbed during a brawl in the Cross. I have gotten what I wanted out of the Cross. Sydney was founded by criminals who for years formed a majority of its population. He was shot three times but survived. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. 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. After almost a decade working in Kings Cross, the startling revelations of graft, corruption, drug dealing and prostitution are like office gossip to John. Bayeh, who now lives in the Sydney CBD with his 35-year-old fiance Leyla Yavuz, wants it known that he has no grudge against the two men mainly responsible for his very public demise and eventual jailing, Royal Commissioner James Wood and Council Assisting the Royal Commission John Agius. ''He is going to work for a fruit man,'' he added. Hakim got him a job as debt collector with Lennie McPherson, and Bayeh went on to open a gaming club at West Ryde with Hakims approval and then became a major standover man and Kings Cross drug dealer for many years. Bill Bayeh leaving the Wood Royal Commission after his arrest for supplying drugs.Credit:Nick Moir. If they dont salute, they are a bastard they no good soldier at all. Bayeh's method was simple. Soon afterwards he spoke with news.com.aus Editor-in-Chief Kate de Brito, revealing an ambitious young man who wanted to rule Kings Cross. As his drug operation grew, Bayeh and his family indulged in the good life. With another club in Surfers Paradise, also called The Tunnel, he wanted to free up his commitments in Sydney. The claims are intended to support an argument for the defence of "contextual truth" in the event the book is found to have defamed Mr Domican, which Mr Ibrahim denies. My brother Sam and I have always been pretty healthy. 'Before I'd taken the job with Bram, I'd investigated the possible penalties,' he writes. However, Haken and Egan, along with drug dealer Bill Bayeh, set up an elaborate "sting" for their own profit. Policing in the 1960s and 1970s: a memoir. It is crisscrossed with scars. However, Louis Bayeh uses his own police contacts to successfully oppose bail for the duo, causing Kassab to look like a liar. He pleaded guilty to the hindrance charge earlier this month, while prosecutors dropped a second charge of resisting police. John Ibrahim claims Tom Domican was hired to intimidate him. Benny Kassab, a nightclub bouncer, quells a street brawl and earns the attention of Bill Bayeh. Of his now-shelved fruit shop plans, he said: It didnt happen. Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Benny Kassab suspects that he has a rat in his ranks. 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. Staunton was born in the back of a taxi on London's Fulham Palace Road in 1958 and moved to Australia with his Irish Catholic family when he was seven. During a transfer Staunton found himself sharing a van with Ivan Milat, 'puzzled as to how such an insignificant wimp could have terrorised and brutally murdered so many innocent people.'. Speaking outside the hearing, one of Bayeh's other brothers said he was pleased at the result. But I still go home once a week to have a cup of tea with my mum, he says. If it seems sometimes that he lacks respect for the Commission, its because he does. Soon after that, Karam was killed by his own gang members. The lounge room, covered in thick white carpet, is clean but untidy, giving the impression of an archetypal boys house. 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bill and louis bayeh