Bikie jailed 10 years for deadly gang 'discipline'


Bikie jailed 10 years for deadly gang 'discipline' - 17th May 2002
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)


Armed with a spiked knuckleduster, meat cleaver and knife, bikie gang members rounded on fellow Comanchero Peter Ledger to teach him about club discipline after a dispute over a Harley Davidson.

The lesson was lost on the 44-year-old.

His battered body was dumped outside the western Sydney home of his estranged wife on August 4, 1999, after what Justice Greg James described as a "vicious and appalling torture".

Comancheros "sergeant-at-arms" Ian Raymond Clissold of Mount Druitt was today jailed for at least eight years for the manslaughter of Mr Ledger after pleading guilty in the NSW Supreme Court.

He was sentenced to another two years for an assault on Gregory Simons at the Erskine Park home from where he abducted Mr Ledger for "a flogging" under the orders of "supreme commander" Jock Ross.

The dispute was sparked after Mr Ledger arranged for Comancheros nominee Terry Scott to trade in his Triumph motorbike for another member's Harley for $1,500.

However, it turned out the deal was not sanctioned by club leaders and both men were ordered to reverse it which they did immediately.

But they had breached the code of discipline and for that Mr Ledger had to be punished.

Clissold was arrested five months later after admitting to the father of his de facto that he had been ordered "to sort somebody out who had been causing a bit of trouble" and had to "teach him a lesson but it went a bit too far".

So vicious was the beating inflicted on Mr Ledger that his right cheek bone was completely detached from the rest of his face while injuries to his legs and knees indicated a spiked knuckleduster has been used.

Facing a murder charge, Clissold pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a plea bargain, claiming he had walked away complaining of abdominal pains before Mr Ledger was eventually killed by two other bikies.

Justice James said without the plea there was a "substantial risk" he could have been acquitted of all charges and discounted his sentence by 20 per cent.

His legal team had argued the sentence should be discounted further because Clissold had acted under orders.

While there was some evidence he had distanced himself from the bikie gang while behind bars, he still "retains a loyalty to the objectives of the club and the supreme commander", Justice James said.

He will be eligible for parole in January 2010.

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