Sniper who killed WA bikie in public assassination claimed he was a government ‘spook’, court told

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A confessed murderer whose evidence could decide the fate of a Perth bikie accused of putting out a hit on an underworld rival has been caught out in a string of lies, including claiming that he worked for the government as a secret spy.

The 39-year-old former soldier, whose identity has been suppressed by the courts since his arrest in 2021 over the shooting death of Rebels bikie Nick Martin, continued being cross-examined on Monday in the trial of David Pye, who is accused of ordering the killing.

A court sketch of bikie David Pye, who is accused of paying a former soldier to shoot Martin.

Defence barrister David Hallowes, SC, repeatedly called the man out on multiple lies in an attempt to discredit him on the stand.

Pye – a former Rebels bikie who defected to the Comancheros and is now a member of the Mongols – denies the prosecution’s accusations he agreed to pay the man $150,000 to shoot Martin at Kwinana Motorplex in December 2020, as well as allegations he requested similar hits on an ex-girlfriend and another bikie in exile in Thailand.

The former soldier pleaded guilty to his role in the killing, where he shot Martin with a high-powered rifle from 365 metres away, and is serving a reduced sentence in return for testifying against Pye.

However, as day four of the trial got under way in the WA Supreme Court, the court heard the man had told a series lies, including telling his former fiance he had been hired by the government to kill Martin.

The man testified that he had told the woman of his “own volition” that he was the person who had shot Martin, but denied he said he had done so because he was “a spook for the Australian government”.

Hallowes told the court the man’s fiance questioned why there was such a big public investigation by police into Martin’s death if it was a government kill, suggesting the man told her: “It needed to look like a gang killing.”

“After she worked out you had shot Nick Martin and you admitted to her that you were saying these things, that you were a spook, that you were doing top secret government missions to her, to try and suggest that the killing of Nick Martin was part of this?” Hallowes asked the former soldier.

“Yes, I misled her. I let her assume it was in relation to things going on overseas,” he replied.

You told deliberate lies. – Yes, to protect her.

Was it after that you proposed to her? – Yes.

You proposed to this woman you’d been telling a series of lies to? She bought your lies? – Yes. It was a shit thing to do, but yes.

The man also claimed a series of lies he told Pye during a recorded conversation played to the court where he bragged about his credentials and experience as a soldier were to “big note” himself to the bikie.

Alleged mastermind behind bikie’s killing released on bail for duration of trial

On Friday, Justice Joseph McGrath released previously suppressed information about Pye being released on bail for the duration of his trial.

In documents the judge made publicly available, McGrath stated Pye had been diagnosed with mental health issues that he needed medication for that was not available to him in prison.

“The consequence is that there is real prospect that the accused will be unable to properly engage in his own trial with the result that an issue of the fitness to stand trial will arise,” the statement read.

“If the trial was to proceed, the consequence is that the trial will be adjourned or aborted. That is because expert evidence would be required to consider the question as to whether, the accused, in the absence of the prescribed medication, is fit to stand trial.”

Pye is instead being escorted to and from a Perth suburb by police for the expected three to four weeks the trial will run.

The sniper is due to finish giving evidence on Monday.

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