Introduction

Welcome to dangerousdaveeverett.com

In case you haven’t guessed, the ‘dangerous’ part is tongue-in-cheek. At the height of my notoriety in the early 1990s, the tabloid media had built me up to be the biggest threat to Australian society since Ned Kelly. I guess the idea of an ex-special forces soldier-cum-criminal stirred people up, but those who are close to me still can’t imagine that I could be considered dangerous. I reckon I’m just a regular bloke who made a couple of bad decisions. But perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself…

For those who haven’t yet heard my story, I went from a young, fit and action-hungry SAS operator to fighting in the jungles of Burma to Australia’s most-wanted man. You know, the usual story.

When I applied for SAS selection back in the early 1980s, I was a skinny young apprentice mechanic who nobody thought had a hope of getting through the gruelling course. Not only did I get through, I managed to achieve an above-average score to boot. Life in the Regiment was great for a young digger, but I quickly became frustrated with the lack of action. While on leave investigating an SAS mate’s suspicious death in Burma, I became caught up in the plight of the ethnic Karen of Burma, and joined their fight against a totalitarian military regime. In the unforgiving jungles of eastern Burma, I experienced the harsh realities and horror confronting the Karen people. On my return to Australia, I went outside of the law to raise money to help the Karen cause.

At the peak of my crime spree, newspapers and television news programs across Australia fuelled the public’s fear that I was a crazed killer bent on bringing down the government. Such was my reputation that when I was captured, the government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in heavy security operations to move me from prison to the courts, and kept me confined in virtual isolation in a ‘special-handling unit’ (a gaol within a gaol for the ‘baddest of the bad’). It was in prison that I had a chance to write my story, and to set a few things straight about how things really happened.  In July 2008, Shadow Warrior was released.

I hope you will find something to take out of my story, whether it is awareness of the ongoing plight of the Karen, or an idea of the consequences when there is little support for soldiers re-entering civilian life, or an understanding that the costs of crime far outweigh any perceived benefits – the means do not justify the ends, no matter how noble the cause.

Most importantly this website gives me an opportunity to encourage you to support two charities that remain very close to my heart: Tribal Refugee Welfare and The Special Air Services Resources trust fund.