'That's a whack. It should hurt': ex-bikie associate berated by magistrate over weapons, drugs charges

A magistrate told a former bikie associate his sentence “should hurt” when warning him about engaging in criminal behaviour again after police raided his home and seized weapons and drugs.

“That’s a whack. It should hurt. It should hurt,” Magistrate Louise Taylor told Ryan Lee Marshall after handing him a two-year good behaviour order and fining him $4750.

She hoped every time he had to make a payment on his fines, it would remind him “to stay away from putting stuff up your nose”.

Magistrate Taylor also told the 26-year-old he was lucky he had his family in the ACT Magistrates Court to support him because others who had sat in the same seat that he was in had turned around to look for their parents only to see they weren’t there “because they have long given up”.

Marshall was involved in a fight in Civic on 21 May 2021, and when police searched him, they found cocaine in his possession.

Police raided his home on 30 December 2021 and seized items including 1.273 grams of cocaine which he said he bought in bulk due to the nature of his addiction.

They also found $2980 (the proceeds of crime), two sets of knuckle dusters and one taser. He also had a large number of declared substances.

On 6 March 2022, he was spotted apparently trying to snort a white substance. Police searched him and seized a knife.

Marshall pleaded guilty to numerous charges, including possessing a drug for sale or supply, as well as possessing prohibited weapons, a drug of dependence, the proceeds of crime, declared substances and a knife.

“There’s no adequate way to describe how bad my client’s drug habit was,” lawyer Pierre Johannessen said.

He said Marshall had gone from representing the ACT in basketball to hanging around bikies.

“He turned to drugs. He turned to unscrupulous characters,” he said.

But Mr Johannessen said, “though he fell, my client got back up”.

He had gotten a good job and now spent his days going to the gym, reading books and understanding his ADHD.

When Mr Johannessen asked his client about his previous way of living, he told him, “eff that life”.

Magistrate Taylor said there was a reference to Marshall’s association with an outlaw motorcycle gang in a pre-sentence report, but he said he had ended this association.

He now wants to end his cocaine use and establish a normal life in Canberra, while his mother said he was trying to turn his life around.

After convicting him, Magistrate Taylor told him, “if you want to get your life clean, here’s the opportunity for you to do it”.

“I’m satisfied you’ve got the capacity to live a different kind of life if you want to,” she said.