Net taught Bandido about life as a biker

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This article was published 12/09/2009 (6112 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LONDON, Ont. — Everything ex-cop Michael Sandham ever wanted to know about being an outlaw biker was on the Internet, he says.

The former Winnipeg Bandido, on trial with five other men charged with eight counts of first-degree murder, testified yesterday at his Superior Court trial he didn’t know how to be a biker when he joined the worldwide motorcycle club.

“So you just Googled (a reference to Bandidos)?” asked Christopher Hicks, lawyer for co-accused Brett Gardiner.

“There’s a lot of information there,” Sandham said with a knowing nod.

Sandham, 39, has told the London jury he joined the club with an eye to infiltrate the organization and become a police agent.

The jury also heard he told the police 223 times in his first of three statements after his arrest “I wasn’t even there,” at Wayne Kellestine’s Elgin County farm on April 8, 2006 when the eight Toronto-area Bandidos were shot to death.

It was the third day in the witness box for Sandham, the first of the defendants to testify at the trial. He continued to downplay his involvement in the shootings and promote his role as peacemaker, comforter and mediator.

Others in the prisoner’s box often rolled their eyes and shook their heads in disgust as Sandham testified.

Sandham levelled the bulk of the blame at his five co-accused, the Crown’s star witness and the head Bandidos south of the Canadian border, including world “El Presidente” Jeff Pike in Houston, Tex.

In a confusing exchange, Sandham told Hicks he was not the president of a probationary Bandido chapter in Winnipeg as the jury has heard, he was just “acting” like one. He also said there really wasn’t a probationary Bandido chapter in Manitoba because there weren’t the required six probationary members.

The trial continues next week.

— The Canadian Press