Oct 31, 2008 - 04:04 PM

By Jeff Mitchell

WHITBY -- A member of the Hells Angels accused a fellow biker of being a police informant years before he is alleged to have plotted with the man to commit a murder, a defence lawyer has suggested.

Lawyer Glen Orr raised the suggestion during cross examination Friday of a witness who has testified during the opening days of the trial of Angels Remond Akleh and Mark Stephenson. The Crown alleges the two men conspired in 2006 to kill rival biker Frank Lenti, and enlisted Oshawa Hells Angels member Stephen Gault as the would-be hitman.

But Mr. Akleh and Mr. Gault had a long history of enmity, Mr. Orr suggested.

"In 2003 Mr. Akleh here accused Gault of being a rat," Mr. Orr said in questioning Sergeant Kenneth Davis, a Biker Enforcement Unit officer called by the Crown as an expert witness on motorcycle gangs.

Sgt. Davis testified he was not aware of the accusation, or an ensuing "arbitration" hearing brought about by the dispute between Mr. Akleh and Mr. Gault.

He agreed, however, that one biker accusing another of being a police informant would be viewed as a most serious indictment.

Mr. Orr also questioned Sgt. Davis about the violent past of Mr. Gault, a biker who signed on as a police agent in 2005 and is expected to be the star prosecution witness in the trial of Mr. Akleh, of Cobourg, and Mr. Stephenson of Sunderland.

Mr. Orr asserted "one of (Mr. Gault's) achievements over the years had been to bite off a piece of a man's ear" and that he had also pleaded guilty in 2002 to threatening a Durham cop who issued him a speeding ticket.

"(Mr. Gault) had made threats to a police officer and he was known as a violent person," Sgt. Davis acknowledged.

Mr. Stephenson, president of the Oshawa chapter of the Hells Angels, and Mr. Akleh, a former Oshawa Angel who transferred to the gang's Nomads group, have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit murder and counselling to commit murder.

The trial, before a jury and Superior Court Justice Bruce Glass, continues Monday.