Korean clubs

Bae Shang and Chai Chong were business associates, who owned a number of restaurants and bars in the Sydney area, including the Ehwa Karaoke Bar in Kings Cross. They were both Korean Nationals.

In early 1997 a violent fight had taken place at the Beewon Restaurant in Kings Cross, involving another Korean national and known gangster, Duck Kim. Lee Sang, an employee at Beewon, fled the scene, hiding at the Ehwa Karaoke Bar. Concern began to grow among Korean businessmen in Sydney that Korean gangs were causing trouble at businesses owned by Korean nationals.

On January 30th, Duck Kim and Dok Kim arrived at Ehwa. Bae and Chai became worried about their presence. Bae announced “I will teach them a lesson”. Chai contacted Lee Sang and others, asking them to come to Ehwa, because there were gangsters present.

A trio arrived including Lee Sang, and they noticed Duck Kim and Dok Kim sitting outside Ehwa in a car. An attack swiftly followed, with Lee punching Dok twice through the open window of the driver’s seat. The other two dragged Duck out of the car, as Dok and Lee continued to struggle.

Chai and Bae emerged from the garage of Ehwa carrying broken pieces of a hatstand as wooden batons. They joined in the fight, and Duck and Dok were dragged back into the garage by all five. Bae was continually striking Duck with his home-made baton. Others also continued to attack Dok. Bae then stood back while the others dragged the pair upstairs to another room, and continued their assault.

Sang Lee eventually came back down and told Bae to arrange for Duck and Dok to be taken to hospital - they were driven to St Vincents and left there. Both died at the hospital.

The cause of death was found to be multiple blunt force head injuries.

Bae and Chai were arrested shortly afterwards, and Sang Lee, who fled Australia, was eventually arrested in New Zealand. The others involved were not found, having also fled the country.

Bae and Chai were charged with murder and stood trial together. As an alternative to the murder charge, they were also charged with maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm. Bae acquitted of murder but found guilty of the alternative GBH charge.

Sang Lee similarly pleaded guilty to maliciously inflicting GBH.

Chai was convicted of manslaughter.

The maximum penalty for maliciously inflicting GBH is seven years imprisonment. Bae was sentenced to a total of five years, with a non-parole period of three years and three months.

Sang Lee was sentenced on two years, with a non-parole period of one year and nine months. The Judge found that Bae’s role in the events was much greater that Lee’s, who was only found to be responsible for punching and wrestling with Dok. Sang had also pleaded guilty, and gave evidence against Bae and Chai.

Bae appealed his sentence on the basis that it should have been similar to Lee’s. Bae submitted that Lee had started the fight by punching Dok through the car window. However the Appeal Court felt Bae had really started it by saying he would teach them a lesson and summoning Lee and his friends to the scene.

A surprise attack

Sun was born in South Korea in 1979. His parents split up when he was very young, and although his father moved to Australia, he remained in Korea with his mother and his younger brother. Sadly, she was not able to care for them both, and the boys ended up in a State institution where conditions were poor, and discipline was harsh. They weren't reunited with their father until 1994 when they made it to Australia to live with him and his new wife. There were some initial rough patches, but Sun ended up getting along well with his new stepmother.

As Sun had a fairly poor grasp of English, he didn't spend much time at school, turning instead to various unskilled jobs. He was a pretty placid guy, but was prone to acting impulsively on occasions, and had picked up a habit of smoking pot.

Late one evening in April 1997 Sun went to his friend Justin's house to buy some pot. Another friend of Justin's, named Kyle, was also at the house. Sun and Kyle hadn't met before, and did not take to each other. It seems they got into some sort of argument while they were there. Kyle left Justin's shortly after, and Sun hung around for a while, smoking with Justin. He didn't think anything more of the fight with Kyle, and certainly had no plans to see him again.

Sun decided to leave before it became light, and headed off towards his car, parked in a street nearby. Little did he know, Kyle had decided to lie in wait for him, still angered by the fight earlier that night. He armed himself with a knife and hid behind a tree. When Sun walked past, Kyle grabbed him and threw him to the ground. Sun quickly pulled out a knife of his own, a small, folding knife, and as Kyle came towards him a second time, he lunged forwards and stabbed him in the neck and head. The neck wound penetrated Kyle's upper spinal cord and he died instantly.

Sun had clearly been taken by surprise at Kyle's ambush, having thought he'd left a while ago. It was still dark, and he was frightened when thrown to the ground. Although the knife was more of the pocket kind than anything else, and wasn't carried for protection or to injure anyone, unfortunately he managed to take a life with it, even in a fight that only lasted a few seconds.

Sun phoned Justin and told him what happened, and that he'd killed Kyle, although he hadn't meant to. Justin rang him back later in the morning and asked Sun to meet him at Wollstonecraft. When he got there, Sun told Justin that a member of the '5T' gang had also been there at the fight, and the gang was now demanding $30,000 from him to keep quiet about the matter. Justin met up with Sun again later on, and gave him $2,000 to help him out.

Of course, the story about the gang was a lie, and led to Sun being charged with 'obtaining money by deception', in addition to the murder charge. It is not clear why he chose to take this tack, but by the time police got hold of him, they agreed that he was well aware of the enormity of what he had done, and was clearly regretted his actions. He said of Kyle "even though he started the scuffle, he did not deserve to die".

Sun went on trial for murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter as soon as it was offered by the Crown (on the second day of his trial).

Due to some confusion about Sun's age (he was actually 17 at the time but believed he was 18) he was detained in the adult prison at Long Bay. He found this experience terrifying. He said he was assaulted by prison officers on one occasion, and was constantly in fear of being sexually abused. Things were a bit better after he was moved to Silverwater Jail, and he managed to get some part time prison work as a sweeper.

He was eventually transferred to Kariong Juvenile Justice Centre once his true age was established through Korean records, but things were a lot worse there. Readers may recall rioting that took place at Kariong in March and April of 1999. It doesn't appear that Sun took an active part in the riots, but the environment was still a harsh and frightening one to be in.

At the end of April Sun was moved to Mount Penang Juvenile Justice Centre, and was unfortunately involved in two rather violent incidents. In one he was just trying to stop a younger boy from being assaulted by a group, and ended up with a fractured cheekbone, that required surgery. In the other incident he turned out to be the aggressor, assaulting another resident who was arguing with him.

Nonetheless he was not regarded as a problem by staff, who described him as "compliant and cooperative" and "a thoughtful, mature young man" who was "not a management problem." It appears in the isolated incident of aggression that perhaps two years of incarceration finally got the better of him, and he snapped.

Sun made the most of his time in custody by furthering his education - not only improving his English, but also studying maths and visual arts. He was on track to complete his School Certificate, and also planned to do his HSC.

He was sentenced to seven years in prison, with a non-parole period of four years. He appealed the harshness of this sentence. A review by the Appeal Court found he was a good man, with strong family support, who was unlikely to re-offend. They reduced his sentence to five years and six months, with a non-parole period of two years and nine months.

Sun was released on 13 February 2000.

Racial tensions

In the mid-90's tensions had been rising in Sydney between youth gangs of two racial groups, namely Pacific Islanders on one hand, and local Aborigines on the other. By November 1995 there was undoubtedly some bad blood between the two.

At about 9:30pm on a Tuesday night, a group of Islander boys including Sautia and Norman were hanging around in Lethbridge Park, and wandered into a nearby shop. While they were in there looking around, the staff members were having some problems with three young Aboriginal men. The staff eventually asked the three men to leave the shop. Sautia and Norman then took it upon themselves to personally escort the three young Aborigines from the premises themselves. Naturally, this caused a bit of resentment, and a fight broke out outside the shop. Sautia, Norman and another friend of theirs Tarawa were in the fight on the Islanders side, and among the Aborigines were Morgan and Anthony.

The fight was eventually broken up, but not before Tarawa was hit by a bottle, apparently thrown by one of the Aborigines. Two of the Islander boys then back to Nikau's house, a friend of theirs, and told them what happened to Tarawa. Everyone was pretty fired up, so Nikau and the other two went over to a mate's place in Emerton, called Stenschke. After hearing the story, Stenschke said they were all going back to the Lethbridge shops, where the boys said Tarawa had been attacked. While they were there Nikau picked up a kitchen knife and put it down his pants. One of the others told him to put it back, but he refused.

Nikau, Norman and the others arrived at Lethbridge Park. Some were carrying metal bars, and Nikau still had the knife. Morgan, Anthony and other Aboriginal boys were already in the park, and when they saw the approaching group of Islanders, they grabbed some fence palings and ran off into a laneway. They didn't get much further, as the Islanders caught up with them and they were set upon.

During the fight Nikau ran towards Anthony, one of the Aboriginal group, with the knife in his hand. Nikau yelled at him, accusing him of throwing the bottle that hit Tarawa earlier. Anthony turned around to run, but Nikau caught up with him and stabbed him in the back. Sautia and another Islander then laid into Anthony with an iron peg.

Morgan, who also managed to suffer some quite serious wounds, was the only one besides Nikau to make a statement about the incident. Morgan didn't see Anthony get attacked with a knife from the rear, but said there were about four Islanders around Anthony holding him by the arms, while Nikau stood between them, punching him repeatedly.

Nonetheless Anthony was stabbed in the left lung, and his aorta and pulmonary artery were severed. He died at the scene. Morgan was lucky not to suffer any permanent damage.

After the fight, Nikau and the others returned to Stenschke's house in Emerton. At that point Nikau realised he no longer had the knife. He searched for it, but could not find it. He said "I never meant to get him that bad, but it went straight through."

Nikau was charged with the murder of Anthony, and the malicious wounding of Morgan. He pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter, and guilty to malicious wounding. The Crown accepted this plea, and he was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of eight years for the manslaughter. For the attack on Morgan he received a fixed term of four years, to be served at the same time.

Nikau appealed his sentence, on the basis that the Judge had not given enough consideration to his youth, the fact that his inhibitions were significantly reduced by the amount of drugs and alcohol he had consumed before the fight, and also the ongoing racial tensions between the two ethnic groups that had led up to the fight.

The Appeal Court felt that while these factors go some way to explaining Nikau's actions that night, they certainly do not excuse them. The Court also noted that Nikau was already under a probation order when he committed this offence, and that the probation order had been imposed for, among other things, menacing a member of the public.

The Court felt proper weight needed to be given to the fact that one person was dead, and another was significantly injured, all because of the deliberate use of a knife in a public brawl. In particular the Court commented that "it was not going to stand idly by while members of conflicting groups worked out their social issues in street fights, armed with weapons". Nikau's appeal was rejected.

Paulo Nikau was due for release on 28 November 2003.