Australian arrested in capital for kidnapping, murder of biker

Left: Wayne Rodney Scheinder, 37, whose body was found in Thailand Wednesday. Right: Australian Antonio Bagnato, 26, arrested in Phnom Penh yesterday. NSW police / Pattaya police

Australian arrested in capital for kidnapping, murder of biker

Cambodian police have arrested a 26-year-old Australian man wanted in connection with the kidnapping and murder of a former Hells Angels biker, whose body was found in Thailand early Wednesday.

Thong Piseth chief of military police in Phnom Penh’s Daun Pehn district, confirmed police arrested Antonio Bagnato yesterday in the capital.

"He was arrested yesterday. He is wanted in a murder case overseas," Piseth said, saying the case had been forwarded to senior officials.

Bagnato is one of five men accused of kidnapping Wayne Rodney Scheinder, a former member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang in Australia, from his villa in Pattaya on Monday around 5am.

Scheinder, 38, was found dead in a shallow grave in a wooded area of Thailand’s Sattahip district two days later.

His heavily tattooed body was found naked. He had suffered serious head injuries and a broken neck, according to Thai police.

Thai police have so far arrested two people including a 21-year-old American, identified as Tyler Joesph Fulton, and a Thai woman, identified as Bagnato’s wife, who is accused of renting the Toyota pickup truck used to abduct and transport the victim.

Police used a GPS tracking device in the vehicle to locate Scheinder’s body, while Fulton was caught trying to cross over into Cambodia.

Bagnato, reportedly a partner of Scheinder in a Sydney fitness business, was identified by Thai police as the prime suspect in the attack.

Scheinder, who had been living at the villa for a month, is former member of the Hells Angels’s Sydney chapter and has an extensive criminal history.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, he spent 18 months on NSWs “most wanted” over the shooting of a bouncer in 2007, although the chargers were later dropped.

The night before the abduction, Scheinder had been drinking with Bagnato, according to Amad Malkoun, the former president of the Comanchero biker gang in Melbourne who had been staying at the victim’s villa as a guest since Saturday.

A security guard at the villa, who witnessed the abduction, identified Bagnato as one of the attackers.

The French caretaker of the villa said Bagnato and the victim were "close".

Source: phnompenhpost.com