Schoolgirls pay to party at gang HQ

By PATRICK GOWER

Auckland schoolgirls are paying $30 a ticket for a secret after-ball party at the Headhunters gang headquarters.

Police say the venue is a "significant risk" for the Westlake Girls' High School students and have asked the school to warn parents.

They say they will use a team-policing unit to raid the party if it goes ahead this weekend.



The Herald has learned that students from several other schools, including the exclusive $10,000-a-year Kristin School in Albany, have held similar parties at the gang's Ellerslie building this ball season.

North Shore City police area commander Inspector Mike Hill said he told Westlake Girls' High - which says it is powerless to stop tomorrow's party - that the venue was a dangerous place for students.

If the party went ahead, Mr Hill said, he would use the team-policing unit "to go the full Monty".

"When we go and do the job, we will not just pay a visit. We will go the whole hog in terms of the organisers and whoever is there."

Mr Hill urged parents to stop their children attending.

He said the venue was a "known criminal premises" and the Headhunters were known for "drug trafficking, violence and illicit activities".

Police could prosecute under the Sale of Liquor Act, which carried penalties of up to $40,000 or three months' imprisonment for organisers and up to $2000 for party-goers.

The Westlake Girls' after-ball tickets cost $30 and include transport from the Aotea Centre to the gang headquarters in Marua Rd, then back to the North Shore in the early morning.

The three-level building is used by several gang members and has accommodation, a boxing gym and a cage for motorcycles.

It has an indoor-outdoor area often rented out for parties.

Westlake Girls' principal Alison Gernhoefer said the after-ball was "not the school's business", but she felt obliged to tell parents of the police concerns.

"This is the problem. Our responsibility ends with the ball at midnight. Attendance at the after-ball function is the prerogative of parents."

Ms Gernhoefer said she had spoken to the girls who organised the party and was sure they did not know who they had been dealing with.



Kristin School principal Marge Scott said she was unaware there had been an after-ball function, let alone at the Headhunters' headquarters.

"I find that really frightening."

The Headhunters were formed in 1967 and, although linked to West Auckland, also have a presence in Ellerslie through senior member Wayne Doyle, who was convicted for his part in the 1985 murder of a King Cobra gang member on a Ponsonby street.

Police say the tightly knit interracial group has more than 1000 criminal convictions among its members, but now prefers to keep a low profile, and is usually pulled up only in major drug investigations.

Two members were convicted in the high-profile Operation Flower methamphetamine case in May, verdicts police believe helped to eliminate the crime syndicate responsible for introducing the methamphetamine drug "P" to Auckland.

Mr Doyle told the Herald he did not think the Westlake Girls' party would go ahead.

He said the student organisers usually claimed to want the venue for birthday parties.

"But they have been turning up with ball-gowns on, and it is too late when they get in here.

"It is not like we are lassoing them in here.

"They come and bat our door down to use the place. We hope the next place that takes them looks after them as well as we have."

Mr Doyle said the police had never been called to the building, and "not one human being has ever sold alcohol here".

Of the schools that had held parties there, Mr Doyle singled out Kristin School for praise, describing its pupils as "the most well-mannered and articulate children I have ever met".

Mr Doyle said that at age 49 and with nine grandchildren, he was winding down from the gang lifestyle he had followed for 33 years.

"I have evolved, but the police just cannot accept that."