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The ex-soldier at the centre of a trial over the alleged contract killing of a prominent West Australian bikie in front of horrified onlookers at a drag racing event has told the Supreme Court he also carried out other targeted assassinations.
The man, whose identity has been suppressed since he was arrested in 2021 for shooting Rebels bikie Nick Martin at the Kwinana Motorplex the year prior, made the sensational admission after the judge presiding over the case granted him immunity, meaning his evidence could not be used against him.
The man convicted of Nick Martin’s murder was a former soldier.Credit: Nine News Perth
The confession came on day three of David Pye’s murder trial. Pye – a former Rebels bikie turned Comanchero, now Mongol – has denied paying the former soldier to “take out” underworld rival Martin, as well as allegations he requested similar hits on an ex-girlfriend and another bikie in exile in Thailand.
The former soldier has already pleaded guilty to killing Martin and received a reduced sentence for testifying against Pye in the judge-alone trial.
His evidence about his other killings was initially suppressed by Justice Joseph McGrath, but that order was retracted on Tuesday morning after the man told the court he did not care if the information was published.
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A certificate of immunity was granted to also protect him from prosecution over potential war crimes, after it was also revealed the Australian Federal Police interviewed him in 2021 in relation to “foreign incursion or terrorism offences”.
The 39-year-old’s evidence is critical to the prosecution’s case, which alleges Pye paid the former soldier $150,000 for the hit on Martin.
During cross-examination on Friday, David Hallowes, SC, repeatedly attempted to expose the man as a “compulsive liar” before exposing inconsistencies he had given to the police in a statement compared to recorded conversations with friends.
However, when he was pressed on the issue of whether Martin was the first person he had killed, the soldier said he could not answer the question without incriminating himself.
The court later heard the man had previously said he had killed so many people, he didn’t know the number.
“Is this something you’re familiar with, building book, making book on targets?” Hallowes asked the man on Friday.
“Yes,” he replied.
It’s something you’ve done over many years, is it? – Yes.
Have you done it in Australia or have you just done it overseas? – Overseas.
Is it the case that in the past you have done reconnaissance on a target and then killed the target? – I’ve done reconnaissance on targets. I’ve not necessarily engaged them afterwards.
So, just to be clear, there have been occasions where you have done reconnaissance on a target and having done that reconnaissance then carried out the execution? – Yes.
The man also gave evidence that he had once shot someone from the inside of a car through a window.
A recorded conversation between the man, an unknown associate, and Pye was played in court on Monday, in which the sniper was asked if any of the killings he had carried out haunted him.
“No. F--- it,” he replied in the recording.
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When asked how many people he had killed, the man said he did not know.
“Because when you kill someone, you’re like, ‘I don’t feel nothing’,” he was heard saying.
“And then you’re like, ‘I should feel something’. I’m the normal – ‘Oh, what’s wrong with me?’
“You know, in movies they freak out.”
The former soldier also testified that he would “only kill a dude if it’s warranted”, and then said during his time in conflict arenas overseas he would capture people and “we give them to the locals, and they kill them”.
Hallowes read out portions of the man’s police statement taken in September 2021, in which he said, “I have not travelled to Syria and I haven’t killed anyone else”.
“It’s just completely wrong, isn’t it?” Hallowes asked.
“Yes,” the man replied, before going on to explain he believed the police misinterpreted his words in the statement, which he later corrected to state that he had killed others before Martin.
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