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Brent Reker was found dead in the Ravenhall Correctional Centre in 2019<br>A prison whistleblower has shed light on the final desperate days of a notorious Finks bikie boss, Brent ‘BJ’ Reker, before he was found dead in jail.<br>The 35-year old national president was found hanging at the Ravenhall Correctional Centre in December 2019 after barricading himself in his cell.<br>While his suicide is the subject of a Victorian coronial inquest, a former guard at the jail has told Daily Mail Australia prison staff had ‘blood on their hands’ over his death. <br>The guard, who wished to remain anonymous, had worked closely with Reker before he hanged himself after being transferred to a unit for troublesome inmates. <br>’He was a massive, 큐프라임치과 massive suicide risk.
He tried to kill himself multiple times while he was at the Melbourne Assessment Prison, and that’s a maximum security prison that is run specifically for those with mental health issues,’ she said.<br>p>Reker had become suicidal after the Director of the Office of Public Prosecutions won an appeal in the Supreme Court that saw his bail revoked in February 2019.<br>p>The bikie had initially been bailed over an alleged bashing, described as a revenge attack over the release of naked photos of his friend Tara Egglestone online.<br>p> Brent Reker as he looked before having his face inked.
Reker had previously spent time in a Perth jail after being convicted of a standover<br>p> Reker allegedly arranged for Finks bikies to target the home of Nick Gold, whom another co-accused, Tara Egglestone (pictured), claimed he posted naked photos of her onli<br>p>Reker’s one year old son Saint had been due to undergo surgery just days after Justice Christopher Beale revoked his bail.<br>p>’He was doing really well on the outside.
He started addressing his mental health issues, was trying to get out of the club and got into some legitimate work,’ the whistleblower said.<br>p>’He hadn’t done anything wrong. The OPP were just gung ho that he shouldn’t have got bail in the first place<br>p>On returning to prison, the former guard claimed Reker was ‘livid’ with his incarceration.<br>p>’He made it very, very clear that any chance he got if he was on his own, that he was going to kill himself,’ she said.<br>p> RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Last month, 큐프라임치과 the Coroner’s Court heard Reker’s first attempt saw him try to hang himself using a torn shirt before prison guards cut him dow<br>He attempted suicide again the following day, this time using a smock. Eight days later he threatened to kill himself agai<br>’Staff identified that Mr Reker had exposed wire from an electric jug in his cell and threatened to electrocute himself by placing the jug in the cell toilet and touching the water,’ Senior Constable Nation s<br>At the time of his death, Reker had been in talks with the Finks to leave the club, find legitimate work and had even begun getting his tattoos remo<br>The former staffer claimed Reker would use his formidable size to barricade his cel<br>It was a tactic he used to prevent guards getting to him on the day he ultimately took his own lif<br>’It wasn’t a new strategy that he’d just come up with.
They were very well aware that he did those things to the point that he would make it very difficult for officers to enter his cell if they had to get in there,’ she sai<br>The former staffer claimed Reker should never have been moved from MAP to the medium security Ravenhall Correctional Centr<br> Reker, 35, was on remand facing charges over an alleged bashing, described as a revenge attack over the release of naked photos of a woman on<br> Reker (middle) pictured with other members of the Finks motorcycle <br> Brent Reker (pictured without his infamous face paint) had been a member of Perth’s Rock Machine bikie club before moving to Melbourne and heading The Fin<br>At the time, Reker’s life had been at risk over his moves to abandon the outlaw clu<br>’Ravenhall is great in theory, but a lot of the staff are very young, very inexperienced and it’s not very well run in comparison to what it could be,’ the whistleblower sai<br>In the days before his suicide, Reker complained of being bored and warned prison staff he would self harm over a cancelled dental appointmen<br>’Do we have to slash up to get what we want?’ he told a guar<br>Reker later told a prison doctor he and other inmates all planned to ‘slash-up’ if their demands weren’t me<br>The court heard Reker had been desperate to obtain a prison job and threatened violence if he didn’t get his wa<br>Fed up, prison bosses agreed to move Reker to a unit away from other inmate<br>The proposed move saw Reker swallow shards of metal when guards came to collect hi<br>Upon his move to the Forbes unit, Reker told staff he had no plans to self har<br>He was placed under hourly observations, which quickly identified trouble was afoo<br>The court heard Reker had covered his cell in toilet paper and blocked his cell door with a mattr<br>When guards rushed around to a rear window to see what was happening inside, they saw a chair wedged in Reker’s showe<br>The court heard guards then forced their way into Reker’s cell where they saw him laying on the floor with a ligature around his nec<br>He could not be revive<br> Brent Reker made multiple attempts to end his life in prison, the coroner hea<br>The prison whistleblower said Reker ought never have been moved to the unit given his fragile state of min<br>’He should have been in a unit that’s monitored 24/7 with no hanging points, without anything that can help him facilitate a suicide and there are those units, they exist and they have inmates in those units all the time in nothing but a gown so they can’t use their clothing to hang themselves,’ she sai<br>’There are padded cells, no hanging points, no electrical points – none of that.
He absolutely should have been in one of those … he was a ticking time bomb. 100 perce<br>The former staffer claimed most prison guards couldn’t care less about the safety of inmante<br>’They see prisoners as scum of the earth and 큐프라임치과 the world would be better off without them, so they have no issue when someone suicides, let alone someone like Brent,’ she s<br> Reker’s history of mental anguish was well known to prison staff, the source s<br> ‘The amount of trauma that guy had been through was ridiculous – the things he had experienced and seen as a child was horrendous, so once you put someone that has had those experiences in a confined space, all those things start resurfacing,’ she s<br> ‘They become compounded and on top of everything else it’s quite an expected reaction for people to not cope well.
Add his persona, his reputation – he wasn’t going to be the type of person to go lay on a couch and speak to someone about his feel<br>.’In an interview in 2018, Reker told Daily Mail Australia: ‘Bikie clubs are the last stand for human rights – in Australia no one is allowed to do anything anym<br> ‘We – just like everyone else – just want to hang out with our mates and go for a drink on Friday night without being told we c<br>.’Reker admitted ‘the way he looks’ often caught the attention of pol<br> Reker was due appear at the County Court on June 29, 2020 for a final directions hearing for his c<br> The coronial matter will return to court next mo<br> A spokesperson for GEO Group Australia, which operates Ravenhall, said it was limited in what could be said while the matter was the subject of a coronial inqu<br> ‘GEO extends its condolences to Mr Reker’s family,’ she sta<br> Lifeline 13 11 14n>Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25)n>
