| Published date | 21 April 2024 |
| Publication title | Herald on Sunday |
It bills itself as “New Zealand’s biggest and busiest Gentlemen’s club” with up to 50 women working there at any one time.
Its private rooms contain classic ’50s American cars and Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
For years Femme Fatale’s frequent flyers have included senior patched members of a range of outlaw motorcycle gangs, plus their hangers-on.
The club uses metal detectors to scan visitors for weapons.
But on April 8, 2022, as the senior Mongol partied in a private room, someone carrying a gun managed to slip past those scanners into the club.
A year earlier, the Mongols Motorcycle Club, a new arrival in New Zealand’s gang scene, had clashed with the Head Hunters in a series of public shootings and fire bombings.
The war culminated in a shooting at a swanky downtown Auckland hotel targeting a Head Hunter who had defected to the Mongols.
It was against this backdrop that the senior member of the Mongols, then serving as a leader in the gang, was relaxing at Femme Fatale on April 8, 2022.
This month, a District Court Judge granted the Herald on Sunday access to court documents relating to the prosecution of the brothel’s manager for obstructing police.
They reveal what happened next.
The Mongol was in the private room with a number of others about 11.15pm when someone pointed a gun through the door and shot him in the back.
A summary of facts describes the gunman as an “unknown person” and he managed to escape before police arrived.
Meanwhile, associates of the senior Mongol took him to Auckland City Hospital before the arrival of armed police and paramedics.
He was initially reported to be in a critical condition.
The gunshot wound to his lower back has left him with lifelong injuries.
He ultimately lost his spleen, a kidney, and part of his bowel.
When officers and detectives arrived at the club they cordoned it off and removed patrons and workers from the building.
Shortly after, police spoke to Kim Pickard, the long-time owner of Femme Fatale. Police told him the club would be locked down and no one was to be allowed in.
A manager of the brothel remained at the scene of the shooting. She told police she stayed to tell prospective customers a VIP function was on and no one could enter.
From 12.44am to 3.52am, she and Pickard were in constant contact via text. He was outside the building and she was inside, telling him what the police...
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