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Christopher Wayne HUDSON
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Member
of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club - Argument
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: June 17, 2007
Date of arrest: 3 days later (surrenders)
Date of birth: May 24, 1978
Victim profile:
Brendan Keilar, 43
Method of murder:
Shooting
Location: Melbourne,
Victoria, Australia
Status:
Pleaded guilty. Sentenced
to life imprisonment with a minimum of 35 years before becoming
eligible for parole in September 2008
The 2007 Melbourne CBD shooting was an
incident that occurred in the Central Business District of Melbourne,
Victoria on 18 June 2007. Three people were shot, one fatally, by
Christopher Wayne Hudson, 31, a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle
Club, who opened fire on two men and a woman during an argument on the
corner of William Street and Flinders Lane at about 8:20 am. Hudson
fled from the scene and went into hiding for two days, before turning
himself in to police on 20 June 2007 in Wallan, north of Melbourne.
In May 2008, Hudson pleaded guilty to the murder of
Brendan Keilar and was sentenced that September to life imprisonment
with a minimum of 35 years before becoming eligible for parole.
Christopher Hudson
Christopher Hudson was a full member of the Hells
Angels Motorcycle Club, having defected from rival group The Finks in
2006. Shortly afterward, he was involved in a brawl between both clubs
at a kickboxing tournament on the Gold Coast and was shot in the chin.
In the days before the killing of Brendan Keilar, Hudson had fired at
police in Campbellfield after a night of heavy drinking with
Collingwood footballer Alan Didak. On 28 June, Didak was interviewed
by police about this incident. Didak claimed that he was intoxicated
at the time, was not in control of the situation and was concerned for
his safety.
The shootings
Hudson spent the night of 17 June 2007 drinking at
the Spearmint Rhino in King Street. Early in the morning of 18 June,
he assaulted stripper Autumn Daly-Holt, a workmate of his girlfriend,
24-year old Kara Douglas. He then called Douglas, who arrived to pick
him up around 7:30 am. Hudson dragged her out onto the street by her
hair. At the corner of William Street and Flinders Lane, two male
bystanders, 43-year old solicitor Brendan Keilar and 25-year old Dutch
backpacker Paul de Waard attempted to assist Douglas. Hudson pulled a
gun and shot all three. Keilar was fatally wounded in the head. de
Waard and Douglas were shot in the upper body. Douglas later had a
kidney removed as a result of her injuries. Douglas, from Sydney, had
been staying in the Punt Hill apartments on Flinders Lane.
Hudson fled the scene as Keilar died in the street,
dumping his weapon and jacket in a nearby construction site on
Flinders Street between Queen and Bond Streets, where they were found
by a construction worker about an hour later. The Rialto Towers were
evacuated amid reports that the gunman had fled into the tower,
sparking a level-to-level search.
His car was discovered abandoned on Flinders Lane
between Swanston and Elizabeth Streets. The black Honda CRV with New
South Wales licence plates was revealed to be one vehicle owned by the
gunman. His other vehicle was a black Mercedes-Benz sedan, later found
in Richmond.
Still high from a drug binge, Hudson fled to a
Hells Angels safehouse north of the city. At 5 pm on 20 June, he
surrendered himself to Victorian Police at Wallan, walking into the
police station without incident. Homicide squad detectives transferred
him to Melbourne where he was charged with murder and other offences
in an out of court hearing.
Aftermath and trial
Hudson was to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates'
Court, but was unable to make it due to an injury to his forearm that
required surgery. The magistrate ordered that Hudson be remanded into
custody. The formal charges were: one charge of murder in relation to
Brendan Keilar, two charges of attempted murder in relation to Kara
Douglas and Paul de Waard, one charge of intentionally causing serious
injury in relation to Autumn Daly-Holt and one charge of unlawful
imprisonment. He was later also charged with nine offences in relation
to the shooting incident involving Didak.
In May 2009, allegations came to light that Hudson
had been tortured by members of the Hell's Angels for bringing
unwanted police attention to the group. The claimant alleges a club
tattoo was burned from his forearm with a blowtorch before he
surrendered to police. The story arose after police raided the Angels'
clubhouse in Sydney and took possession of a Harley Davidson
motorcycle apparently owned by Hudson. This story was denied by
Victoria Police and was further discredited when Hudson's stepmother
sent a recent photograph, clearly showing the club tattoo, to the ABC
program Media Watch.
Paul de Waard returned to the Netherlands to
recover from his injuries. In October 2007, he revealed on a
television interview that he was still undergoing extensive
rehabilitation. He also made an appearance in the Dutch television
show In de schaduw van het nieuws (In the shadow of the news)
on 21 November 2009.
CBD shooter Christopher Wayne Hudson tortured by
Hells Angels bikies
By Paul Kent - News.com.au
May 7, 2009
THE killer behind
Melbourne's horrific CBD shooting was tortured by Hells Angels bikies
before he surrendered to justice, it can finally be revealed.
Christopher Wayne
Hudson, on the run from police after a drug-fuelled rampage, was
chained up while he was punished.
Senior members used a
blowtorch to remove a Hells Angels tattoo from his arm, the Herald
Sun reports.
Speaking for the first
time, a Hells Angels insider said the ritual torture was punishment
for bringing shame on the club.
Hudson surrendered to
police with a heavily bandaged arm after two days on the run.
"Look at the bandage, it
goes right up to the elbow ... it's a burns bandage," the insider
said.
Hudson is serving 35
years for killing lawyer Brendan Keilar and shooting Dutch backpacker
Paul de Waard in June, 2007.
On Tuesday, police raids
across Sydney netted a custom-built Harley-Davidson from the Angels'
Sydney clubhouse.
Police would not confirm
the identity of the bike's owner last night, but a bikie insider said
it was Hudson's.
The bike, painted in
two-tone camouflage grey with a distinctive Hells Angel Arizona
insignia on its side, was wheeled on to the back of a police truck.
For true outlaw bikers,
the loss of their motorbike is the greatest insult they can suffer.
The bike was being held
for safekeeping for Hudson by members who argued he should not be
kicked out.
As his bike was taken
away on Tuesday, Hudson's final few days of freedom have come to
light.
It can be revealed that
bitter infighting broke out within the club as members argued whether
Hudson should be kicked out or allowed to remain.
Hudson had defected from
rival bikie gang The Finks in 2006, which was when he had the Hells
Angels tattoo - of a death's head with Hells Angel around it - inked
on the inside of his arm.
A fully patched member,
he disintegrated into a haze of drugs and alcohol.
Hudson had spent the
night of June 17, 2007 drinking at the Spearmint Rhino and Bar Code
along Melbourne's notorious King St. He was high on drugs and affected
by alcohol.
At 5.30am, Hudson called
his stripper girlfriend Kaera Douglas and asked her to come to get
him.
He had viciously
attacked Ms Douglas's workmate, Autumn Daly-Holt. When Ms Douglas
arrived about 7.30am, he dragged her up the street by her hair.
As they reached the
intersection of William St and Flinders Lane, Mr Keilar weighed in to
help Ms Douglas, and Mr de Waard came to his aid.
After shooting Mr Keilar
dead and wounding Mr de Waard and Ms Douglas, Hudson fled.
He spent two days in a
Hells Angels safe house, coming down from his drug binge. All the
while, club leaders debated what should happen to him.
Some wanted him kicked
out; others, because he was considered staunch, wanted him to remain.
"Some didn't like the
problems he brought with him," a Hells Angels insider said.
"They thought, 'F---
him. He got into it himself.' And with all the trouble he caused us
with The Finks, they thought: 'Why didn't he do this then'?"
In 2006, a kickboxing
promotion on the Gold Coast exploded when bikies from The Finks and
Hells Angels brawled, ending the card. The brawl finished with Hudson
being shot in the chin.
"They thought he should
have done what he did to The Finks, not to innocent people," the
insider said.
When no retribution
followed the brawl, certain hardcore Hells Angels were angered.
Also, days before the
city shooting, Hudson had shot at police after spending a night
drinking with Collingwood footballer Alan Didak.
The club did not want
the police attention Hudson's increasingly chaotic behaviour was
attracting.
And nothing attracts
police attention like murder.
As arguments about
Hudson's future continued, police intelligence surfaced suggesting
that two Hells Angels were flying in from interstate to kill the
wanted fugitive.
With the club split,
some senior Angels took the oxyacetylene torch to Hudson's tattoo.
When Hudson surrendered
to Wallan police, he was sporting a bandage over the burn, prompting
widespread rumours that he had tried to commit suicide.
The insider insists it
was a burns bandage.
But some Hells Angels
still believe Hudson tried to kill himself, saying they have seen what
is left of the damaged tattoo.
"A few blokes said they
saw it and that it has a lot of scarring and it's a bit messed up
because he tried to blade himself," the insider said.
"Chris wasn't that sort
of bloke, though. Not a lot know what really happened."
Unflinching Hudson
gets life in prison for shooting
By Karen Kissane and Kate Hagan - TheAge.com.au
September 23, 2008
HE IS not too bright and can't
read or write well. He worries that he is too thin - that's why he
took the steroids that pumped him up mentally as well as physically.
And he's long been a loser; apart from the occasional labouring gig,
he has relied on his dad to support him the past few years.
- Life in prison, 35-year minimum
- Bikie culture, drug abuse 'only explanation'
- Hudson 'of low intellect'
But Christopher Wayne Hudson, the city shooter, put
on a good front in the Supreme Court yesterday. He puffed out his
chest and held his handsome head high as Justice Paul Coghlan ordered
him to stand to hear his fate: life in prison, with a 35-year minimum.
The 30-year-old Hudson did not flinch.
Maybe it was partly about impressing the gang.
Half-a-dozen Hells Angels sat in the back row behind him. They stood
to greet him when he entered the court. He gave them a smile and a
thumbs up, and one gave him a fist-on-heart salute in return.
They were a big part of his problem, his
psychiatrist had told the judge. The bikie culture and the drugs he
abused were, in the end, the only explanations for the bloody attacks
in the heart of Melbourne on June 18, 2007, in which a drunken,
meth-crazed Hudson left one man dead and three other people seriously
wounded.
A report by consultant psychiatrist Danny Sullivan
had been tendered at Hudson's plea hearing. Dr Sullivan found Hudson
was of low intellect but had no psychiatric disorder: "Although
anabolic steroid abuse and the lifestyle led by Mr Hudson suggests
narcissistic and antisocial features, it is more likely that he was
seduced by the lifestyle offered by joining motorcycle gangs, and that
his peer group and lifestyle encouraged self-centred and aggressive
attitudes."
Hudson, whose spree included savagely kicking a
dancer in the face at a nightclub he had frequented, had a history of
violence against women that was echoed in his city attacks, in which
he shot two men who had tried to help a woman he was assaulting. In
2003, Hudson had beaten his then partner and attacked a security guard
who had tried to help her.
He had been taking anabolic steroids, which he knew
made him moody, for more than a month before the shootings because he
was concerned that people said he was looking "skinny". He had also
been taking large amounts of amphetamines and that night was drinking
heavily, mostly beer and Bacardi rum.
"He was, as a consequence, much more paranoid than
usual," Dr O'Sullivan said.
In front of the dock was Hudson's father, Terry,
dressed as if for a funeral, his face grim as the judge recounted
again the tale of that morning.
It began when Hudson attacked Autumn Daly-Holt, a
dancer at the Spearmint Rhino club in King Street where he had spent
the previous night. He left her lying unconscious on the street and
turned his anger on former girlfriend Keara Douglas, forcing her at
gunpoint to walk with him.
Solicitor and father-of-three Brendan Keilar, 43,
was walking to work when he and Dutch backpacker Paul de Waard, 26,
saw Hudson dragging the distraught Ms Douglas away from a taxi by her
hair. The two men asked Hudson what was going on.
Justice Coghlan said. "They did not even so much as
touch you. You took out your handgun and shot both of them. You also
shot Ms Douglas. They fell to the ground. You shot Mr Brendan Keilar
once more while he was on the ground. You executed him.
"You shot Mr Paul de Waard once more while he was
on the ground.Your gun was then empty. You and others ought be
grateful for that."
Mr Keilar died at the scene.
Most of the rest of Hudson's life will be spent in
jail. His victims feel they have life sentences too. Ms Douglas lost a
kidney. Ms Daly-Holt has been left with permanent nerve damage to her
face. Mr de Waard can no longer enjoy the surfing, swimming and
snowboarding he once loved.
Justice Coghlan found Hudson to be remorseful, but
discounted witness accounts that he had tried to commit suicide after
the shootings - the gun was empty by that stage.
He was given a non-parole period only because he
had pleaded guilty to the charges of murder and attempted murder,
Justice Coghlan said.
