Exclusive interview with exiled Comanchero shot and burned

Les.Ben.The tats, the teeth.You intimidate people when you first meet them.

Yeah, I suppose I do in some way, yeah.Well, I've been told I do.

Lethal Les, a former sergeant at arms and enforcer, was attacked last night.A reprisal for wanting out.

You were with the commos for more than a decade.Very suddenly excommunicated.

Yeah.What happened?I'll choose not to tell anyone or divulge in any club stuff.And I think I've said that to you before, Ben.

Do you know who did it?

I live by the code and the loyalty code and it's bit me in the arse a million times but I'm saying that I live by it and I'll stick by it and I'll cop it on the chin.That's as much as I want to get into it when it comes to club details, mate.

I'm done.What would happen if you weren't living by the code and you did start talking?

I can't even give that answer because it doesn't even come in my vocabulary.My code's one code and one code only.

This was the price Leslie Grantham paid for trying to leave the Comancheros.Shot multiple times and tortured.His legs burnt to remove gang tattoos.Then left for dead outside Rockingham Hospital Emergency Department.

When you came out of hospital and you realised that you'd been in the headlines a lot, did that come as a shock to you?

I wasn't really thinking about that.I was more concerned that a lot of emotion was going on in my head to be honest.First thing, my wife, of course.She shouldn't have had to go through what she went through.

You were found outside Rockingham Hospital in pretty bad shape.You had a bullet hole in you.Three bullet holes, yeah.Three bullet holes.Burns where your tats had been burnt off you.How long were you in hospital in total?

I would have had to be four days.days, I'd say.We believe he was dropped off and just left there, which is a rather callous way to deal with someone with life -threatening injuries.Did you ever worry you were going to die?

Yes, at the start, when you really realise what's happened, and plus all the emotions and anxiety, all the build -up, I guess.It's quite a bit touchy, so if I do get a bit funny during the interview, no disrespect to you, but it's quite It's not something I really like talking about too much.

Do you know if detectives have charged anyone yet?

Couldn't give a ****.How many times have you been in hospital or required medical attention because of your life as a bikey?

Yeah, a few.A few.Are you surprised that you're alive?Head caved in with a hammer 18 times in a road rage incident.He ran away, not me.And obviously, yeah, this one.

And the other one, falling off a balcony at home, like two storeys on my head.Like, there's a lot of things I've done.I should be dead.There's a reason I'm not.and it's not because of me good looks, that's for sure.What are you laughing at, Ben?

Fucking hell, yeah.

This person has now been left with life -changing injuries and this is solely because he was a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang.

So your problem as a bikey was meth?Absolutely.And you became addicted to meth?

At the age of 13.The speed it was initially, obviously, before it changed into meth, but yeah, the only times that I would ever be off a pipe was in jail or five or six weeks out from a boxing fight.

When did you decide that you were done with that life?

three months ago.I was in a real emotional state, drug -induced at a lot of times too, soothing the mind I guess.Hanging around people that really didn't have my best interests.I was going to the gym every evening and then spending a bit longer than normal.And yeah, it's just sort of, sorry, basically just sitting in the car, mate, and just contemplating whether to drop it off, you know?Yeah, but I never had the balls to do it, and I wouldn't do it because I watched my brother -in -law go through it, hung himself in prison.

And some very, very close friends of mine had done it just recently, so it's not a nice thing.And I couldn't do it.Yeah, but that's where I was at.And yeah, just my wife got in contact with Gary, my cousin, Gary Wright.

So your cousin Gary, he'd been through a fair bit himself.

Oh, absolutely.And he looked up to me for the bad things, I guess.Early on in life, he looked up to me, but then he ran the ball and he ran it good.Don't worry about that, mate.He had the cars, he had the money, he had the product, he had everything.And he had the respect.

But what he didn't have was what he had exactly the same as his older cousin.We had no respect for ourself.And now he's not dealing dope, mate, he's dealing hope, to be honest with you.

Let it go, let it go.

That video of you doing the breathwork session, where you're shaking and you eventually start really screaming, guttural scream.What did it feel like in that moment?

Everybody's experience is completely different because it's trauma, it's built up emotion, it's anxiety, it's post -traumatic stress disorder, it's all these real hidden, maybe core beliefs, it could be anything, that are tied up, that are wrecking your body inside.In my case, sexual abuse, and I'm hopefully saying it, like things that you've got to, there's no good in here.It's just, you might as well punch yourself up inside.So it's a way of getting out.Whatever, those are the most deepest, darkest parts of my life that I wanted to...beat, I beat it.

And literally everything that I don't like and everything that I've done bad, I was at a door basically and I faced it and I ran through it.

I left it all behind.

I've faced the worst of the worst.It's a fart in the ocean compared to what I'm facing now and that's me.This is worse than any bullet.Facing Les Grantham and wanting to do the right thing is the hardest thing ever, mate.

Do you reckon it works?Absolutely.I've come from shooting people to loving people.

Nine dimensions of sound running through there at the same time, with a beautiful guided journey by the man himself, the founder, Brian Kelly.

It was like I was finally letting go of years of baggage.There's three parts of it.

So there's obviously, that's what goes on in the earphones.We have the mask on the face to block all external distractions.So we work hard on the subconscious and all the feelings we have built up inside, traumas or whatever it may be, yeah.The breath is called a two -in -one breath, which is, if you breathe out once in the gut, in the chest, and it's called somatic breathing or holotropic breathing.That's the breath work.So it's the three things combined into one, which gives you this amazing result.

Loved holding people's hands and coming from tying them up with ropes to holding their hands, man, it's amazing.

Did you ever think when you were the Sergeant -at -Arms for the Comancheros that you would one day be talking about breath work?

Never in a million years.Never in a million years.I used to tell Gary, you're full of shit.I always say, Gary, you're doing it for money.Now every day I wake up and I say, Les, are you happy with yourself today?Yep, like an oaf.

Please just do one thing good for someone.If not, do something good for yourself.It's nice to get told.thank you for dealing with someone's built up trauma and being there to hug them, getting thanked for that, rather than getting thanked for making them go to somewhere where they need trauma.

Rather than someone saying, thank you, Les, for bashing that person.

Yeah, or thank you, Les, for fucking my life up.I can never take back what I've done, never in a million years.And I don't wish to dwell on my past, because this is where I am at now.But all I'm going to do is every bit of my life experiences that I've had is going to be used to create the best going forward, and to help as many people as I possibly can.

You very quickly mentioned the fact that there was some abuse in your childhood.

Yeah.

Is that something that you have come to terms with?

100%.There have come terms with that I've got to help others speak up.It's happened for a long period, and I'm openly saying it.It went on for months with me, time and time again.

And if you ran into that person that abused you as a child?

Now?Yeah, I'd tell him.I'd definitely tell him.I'd probably spit in his face, to be honest with you.I think that'd be as far as I would go.If it wasn't for me speaking up, there's many kids, hundreds of charges, hundreds of charges, man.

It's disgusting, man. I thought, bugger it, I'll be as vulnerable as I can.Open up, maybe.You know how many beautiful things that come back from that?Have you been apologising to people over the last year?Apologise to as many people, anyone that comes my way that I've hurt.Les, have you done this?

100 % I have.Do you wish you didn't do it?There's many things I've done and I would not take back, Ben.Because I feel these people deserved it 100%.Other people don't agree and I understand that.

What would you say to a... bloke in his 20s who's thinking about patching up?

Very good question.I've been asked this a lot.Would you deter people from doing it?Definitely not.That's not my job.But if you asked me a question on my personal experiences, 100 % I'll give the answer.

Would I recommend it?Definitely not.I wouldn't recommend it because that's my experiences.

If you could rewind 15 years ago to when you were doing Time and you first ran into Shorty Milankovski and started talking about patching up to the Comancheros, would you have done things differently in retrospect?

No, because I looked and I protected him like I don't think anyone would have protected him or guarded him like I guarded him.And if he's listening, I think he definitely knows deep down inside that's the truth.As a nom, he couldn't go to the toilet without me standing at the door.That's the truth.

You're still sounding a lot like a bikey, Les, when you talk.How often do you have to check yourself?

A lot.Frequently.Like just now you helped me with that because it gets me back into my place.Is there anything you miss about being a bikey?Now saying it now, like right now, no.But at the time, 100%.

I was devastated.I was emotionally gone.It was like everything I've done for the last 16 years and done hard, like proper hard, and defended, it just shat on me face.

Most people, if they had what happened to you happen to them, they would want revenge.Three bullet holes, you're burnt and left for dead.And you're telling us that you've made peace with all that.

I haven't made peace.I've forgiven them.Will I like the individuals or whoever these people are?

The gang crime squad is hunting those responsible.

Do you have any idea who will find it?Any message to them?Where do you stand on it?

I'm definitely not going to judge anybody anymore.And going through my healing journey, considering after the incident, whatever happened to me just recently, it's been a year now.Some of the greatest support my wife and myself have got has been by a couple of gang crime officers.Legitimately saying if my wife's OK, calling past home, asking me, Les, how's everything going?Not giving anyone up.They know what I'm like.

They don't get a word out of me.But they have given me a lot of support.And the support isn't what I'm saying for me.It's not.It's my wife.

So you're 52, 30 of those 52 years, you were a criminal.Complete.You've been not a criminal for barely 12 months.Are you confident that this new you is the real you?

I will never go backwards.When I say something, I do it.That's it.I said I was loyal to a club.The second I was removed from that club, I'll never be loyal to another club.I've got my own club now.

Do you think you deserved what happened to you?

I'm glad it happened to me and I'll cop it again for the same reason.

You'd prefer to have gone through that to get to this point in your life?

100%.I would have copped 30 bullets to be where I am now because it's worth every minute of it.