Australia: "Compensation" to family of killed standover man

The family of the murdered standover man Michael "No Thumbs" Pestano has been awarded compensation - believed to be the maximum $50,000 - enraging the people he harassed. But now Tim Nam, the man who was driven to kill Pestano in self-defence during a 2004 siege at Arthurville, in the state's central west, has told the Herald he plans to sue the police, the Department of Corrective Services and the people who hired and assisted Pestano during the siege. Police have also begun an investigation into the actions of police during the siege, in which two of Pestano's associates were wounded.

"The police didn't act the way they were supposed to, but if they had correctly done their job I wouldn't be in jail to start with and all these other people would've been arrested," said Mr Nam, 29, who was freed from jail in September. A judge described the actions of Pestano on the night he died as "disgraceful, cowardly and unlawful". Yet his family - including his son Jason, who the judge said was part of his father's siege party - was compensated by the Victims Compensation Tribunal, which is designed to assist victims of violent crime.

News of the payout has infuriated the Nams, who have been told that any compensation relating to the incident has already been claimed by the Pestanos. A spokesman for the Attorney-General, Bob Debus, said the tribunal was unable to provide information on individual cases.

Mr Nam's parents, Laurie and Margaret, became embroiled in a dispute with their former friends Colleen and David Taylor. The Taylors, who had won $10 million in Oz Lotto, had installed their friends on a property outside Wellington, which they bought after their win in 1999. When the Nams refused to leave it, the Taylors hired Pestano to "mediate" on their behalf. Colleen Taylor has told the Herald she did not know of Pestano's background and that she had hired him as a debt recovery agent.

On July 22, 2004, Pestano and his associates met Mrs Taylor in Wellington before setting up camp on the property. Over the next day they terrorised the Nam family, burned their fences, emptied their water tanks and cut their power. Later, thinking they were being shot at, the Nams opened fire, leaving Pestano dead and two of his associates, Ron Howell and Frank Croker, wounded. Tim Nam and his father Laurie were arrested and refused bail. Laurie spent several months in jail before charges against him were dropped. His son spent more than two years in jail awaiting trial. In July this year he pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Pestano, 53.

When the matter came before Justice Michael Adams of the NSW Supreme Court for sentence in August, he questioned whether Mr Nam should have been charged, saying he had "found himself caught up in a terrifying nightmare, which was not of his own making". Justice Adams also said that Pestano was "known to police as a standover man and extortionist" and that "at the time of his death he was subject to an outstanding charge of [demanding] money with menaces and intimidation. His conduct on the night he died was entirely consistent with his reputation".

In response to desperate calls by the Nams, the police had gone to the property the previous day, and twice on the night Pestano was shot dead. Justice Adams said that at the conclusion of the last visit, about 9pm, a police inspector "spoke to the Nams and told them and the Pestano group that he was fed up with what was happening and the police would not come out again. I believe that Pestano thought he was now free to do virtually what he wanted". The judge gave Mr Nam a two-year sentence. But because of the time he had already served, he was eligible for release and walked free on September 1.

Report here


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