Dec 09, 2008 - 12:34 PM

Jeff Mitchell

A Hell's Angel member has testified that as far back as 2002 he was warning his biker colleagues they had a "rat" in their midst.
Taking the witness stand in his own defence Monday, Remond (Ray) Akleh said he didn't trust Steven Gault -- the man who eventually implicated him in a murder conspiracy -- from the time he met him.
Mr. Akleh, 46, of Cobourg, said he was put off by Mr. Gault, who Mr. Akleh called a loudmouth who liked to brag about his violent criminal past. Mr. Akleh warned his fellow bikers in the Oshawa Hells Angels chapter the new recruit would cause trouble for them.
"He was making everybody aware of how dangerous he was and things he had done in the past," Mr. Akleh said, recalling how Mr. Gault hinted he'd been involved in a murder and was especially proud of a newspaper clipping about his conviction for biting off a man's ear in a bar fight.
"I let the other members in Oshawa know we didn't need this kind of person around," Mr. Akleh testified.
Mr. Akleh said his concerns about Mr. Gault deepened when he heard through several sources, including the man's ex-wife, that Mr. Gault was a police informant.
"People were calling him a police informant -- a rat," Mr. Akleh said.
Mr. Akleh said he left the Oshawa chapter in late 2002, joining the Angels' Nomads chapter in Ottawa. The club's refusal to acknowledge his concerns about Mr. Gault was part of the reason for his split with the Oshawa-based Angels, he said.
Four years later, his suspicions would be borne out: Mr. Gault, who had been working as a police agent, provided cops with information that led to the arrests of more than a dozen bikers, most of them on drug and weapons charges.
Mr. Akleh and Oshawa Angels president Mark Stephenson, a Sunderland resident, were charged with conspiring to murder a rival biker, Frank Lenti. Mr. Gault has testified earlier in this trial he was enlisted by the accused men in June of 2006 to kill Mr. Lenti, who was aligned with the rival Bandidos gang.
Mr. Akleh and Mr. Stephenson have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and counselling to commit murder.
That Mr. Akleh is testifying at all is remarkable; the Hells Angels typically do not take the stand in criminal trials.
Another exceptional element of this trial, which began in October, is Mr. Akleh's admission that he has worked since 2004 as a police informant, providing confidential information to Biker Enforcement Unit cops about Mr. Gault, Mr. Lenti and the Bandidos.
Monday Mr. Akleh said his association with the police began when he started talking with a Durham officer whom Mr. Gault was convicted of threatening in 2002; the two men shared a concern about Mr. Gault's potential to harm them or their families, jurors heard.
The trial, before Superior Court Justice Bruce Glass, continues.