After his long-term girlfriend claimed he wanted her to handle his funeral, the mother of a Bandidos bikie enforcer is continuing to struggle for her son’s remains.
Ricky Chapman, 32, died on April 20 while working at Rio Tinto’s port in Cape Lambert, 1,500 kilometers north of Perth, after suffering a medical episode.
Suzanne Britt, his mother, and Stacey Schoppe, his fiancée, have been fighting for his remains and the right to hold his burial since his death.
Last week Ms Schoppe was granted permission to organise Chapman’s funeral by a Supreme Court judge, The West reports.
Chapman and Ms Schoppe had been in a’marriage-like’ relationship and were once expecting a child together, according to the court.
Ms Britt, Chapman’s mother, filed an appeal the next day, requesting that Chapman’s body be released into her care and that she be given the ability to plan his funeral.
The hearing on the urgent appeal has been scheduled for next week.
The Office of the State Coroner has been listed as a party in the case despite already ruling in Ms Schoppe’s favour.
Chapman’s death came just 16 months after he survived being hit by the same assassin’s bullet that killed Rebels bikie boss Nick Martin’s at Perth Motorplex in December, 2020.
Ms Schoppe, who is also Martin’s stepdaughter, initially started a GoFundMe campaign to pay for his funeral.
She raised thousands of dollars for his funeral but those plans were soon halted after Chapman’s mother, Suzanne Britt, took the matter of who had the right to organise his funeral to court.
At the time of his death, Chapman lacked a will.
Ms Schoppe and Chapman started dating in late 2019, but Ms Britt said they had been apart for around five months before her son died.
Ms Britt claims the two had a’marriage-like’ de facto relationship before Chapman’s death but that it ended in November 2021.
She said Chapman had stayed at the Rendezvous Hotel in Scarborough without Ms Schoppe at one time.
Ms Schoppe wrote in a victim impact statement her relationship with Chapman had ‘ended under the pressure’ of a shooting that killed her stepfather, Martin.
Ms Schoppe responded to these claims with a sworn affidavit stating she was in a de facto relationship with Chapman and he had been ‘excited’ to be a father before she lost their child in a miscarriage.
‘Mr Chapman was excited when he found out they were pregnant and devastated when Ms Schoppe miscarried, which indicated they did intend to create a family in a marriage-like relationship,’ Justice Curthoys said.
He noted the couple may have broken up between November and December of last year but that didn’t mean the relationship completely ended.
Ms Schoppe told the court she would be honouring Chapman’s wish by arranging his funeral.
‘I’m only here because Ricky told me what he wanted, otherwise I would be happy for him to go to his mum,’ she said.
‘He did a lot of jail and spent a lot of time in misery and I just wanted him to have what he wanted for once.’