Kim Bolan
vancouversun.com
VANCOUVER - For the second time in less than a year, a woman has alleged to police that she was raped inside the Renegades clubhouse in Prince George.
Charges have been laid against five gangsters and associates in two separate sex-assault cases alleged to have occurred last month and last July at the biker hangout on Fir Street.
RCMP Sgt. Raj Sidhu, of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said it is courageous of the victims to come forward and cooperate with police, and he hopes more women who have had similar experiences will follow suit.
“If something does happen, come forward and police will help you,” Sidhu said. “It can help the future victims of these crimes.”
The latest complaint came from inside the residence-turned-clubhouse March 24. Charged are Albert Donald Piche, a 31-year-old police say is a member of the Game Tight Soldiers gang, Julian Niskakoski, 19, Adam Andrew Boyd, 21, and Celini Junio, 23.
Boyd has links to the Hells Angels in the Lower Mainland, police said.
Both Boyd and Niskakoski were arrested when police arrived at the house March 24. Piche, who has a long history with police, was picked up the next day. All three are back in court April 13. Junio was charged last week and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.
The charges include sexual assault with a weapon, unlawful confinement and administering a noxious substance. Police executed a search warrant at the house, at 1590 Fir, as part of their investigation.
Last July 22, another complainant alleged she was also sexually assaulted at the same clubhouse by another man police say is a leader of the Game Tight Soldiers. Joey Lamont Arrance is facing one count in connection with the allegation. But he has several other outstanding charges after police raided his home last September and seized a 10-mm Glock handgun and spare magazine, as well as a pineapple-style grenade and body armour.
Piche was also facing gun charges along with GTS associate Frankie Meerholz, but they were stayed last month, when Crown decided it could not prove which of the suspects riding in a vehicle where a gun was found was in possession of the firearm. Meerholz, who was born in South Africa and has criminal convictions in B.C., has been ordered deported.
Sidhu said the clubhouse has been a gathering place for criminals for years, both the Renegades, who are aligned with the Hells Angels, and now other gangsters linked to the GTS.
“Ever since it opened up in the late ’90s, it has been associated to organized crime,” Sidhu said. “Even before the Renegades were formally in place as a Hells Angels puppet club, the house was there and it was the subject of police knowledge.”
The house is owned by Clifford Daley and Gary LeComte and is worth $231,000, according to the B.C. Assessment Authority. Neither man could be reached for comment. Neither has any criminal history, according to the Provincial Court database.
Lynnell Halikowski, a counsellor at the Prince George Sexual Assault Centre, said there is an epidemic of sex assaults in the area linked to gangs and organized crime generally.
While she doesn’t have specifics of the two cases linked to the clubhouse, she did see several police vehicles outside the house last month when the latest 911 call came in.
“The response just suggests to me that it was pretty horrific,” she said.
“Generally there are three known gangs in Prince George. They are very active and there has been a huge increase in violence in our community, particularly against women. Women are victims of those crimes, whether it is the sexual exploitation that happens around the drug trade or whether it is the sexual assaults. It is not adequately being addressed.”
She said there has been much attention paid to gangland shootouts in Prince George, but not to the spinoff violence against women by the gangsters.
“All the sexualized violence that is happening around women and organized crime is not ever really spoken about,” Halikowski said.
kbolan@vancouversun.com
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