Didn't want to implicate bikers in murder plot
Nov 21, 2008 - 02:10 PM
By Jeff Mitchell
WHITBY -- He was paid thousands to inform on drug dealing among his biker brothers, but a police agent has testified he was reluctant to implicate two Hells Angels in a murder plot.
"I wasn't happy to do it," Steven Gault said of alleging two men were conspiring to kill an underworld rival.
"... And I'm not happy to be here right now."
Mr. Gault, 35, is the Crown's star witness in the trial of Mark Stephenson, president of the Oshawa chapter of the Hells Angels and Remond Akleh, a member of the gang's Nomads wing. Mr. Stephenson, of Sunderland and Mr. Akleh, of Cobourg, have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit murder and counselling to commit murder.
Mr. Gault, who worked his way up to full-patch member status with the Oshawa Angels while working as a police agent, has testified the men now on trail enlisted him in June 2006 to murder Frank Lenti, a man with ties to the Angels' rivals, the Bandidos.
Testifying in Superior Court in Whitby Friday, Mr. Gault said he signed on with police to provide information about drug dealing among bikers and had exceeded the terms of his contract -- he was hired to target six bikers but provided information on 16 -- and was looking to cash out when the plot to kill Mr. Lenti was presented to him.
"The original agreement was for six people. I felt at 16 that's enough stress -- I'm done," he said.
"When these two (Mr. Akleh and Mr. Stephenson) came to me and started talking about this (conspiracy) I had no intention of following this or doing more investigation."
But police insisted his contract required him to follow up on the information, Mr. Gault said. At the instruction of his handlers he wore a body pack recording device in subsequent meetings with Mr. Stephenson and Mr. Akleh; the jury has heard those tapes during the trial.
Mr. Gault agreed with Brian Grys, the defence lawyer representing Mr. Stephenson, that his payout for his work on the Angels sting, dubbed Project Tandem, will be in the neighbourhood of $1 million.
The trial, before a jury and Justice Bruce Glass, continues.
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