Michael Sandham

The Princess Patricia's regiment, which was founded in 1914 and won many battle honours in both world wars, was a more prestigious regiment within the Canadian Army than the Airborne Regiment, which had been founded in 1968 and disbanded in disgrace after the Somalia Affair in 1995.

Sandham was diminishing his service record by claiming to have served with the Airborne Regiment instead of the Princess Patricia's regiment.

Sandham joined an outlaw biker club in Winnipeg called los Montoneros.

The Hells Angels national president Walter Stadnick had declared los Montoneros biker gang to be unfit to be Hells Angels.

The journalist Jerry Langton wrote the general level of intelligence within los Montoneros can be seen in that the gang believed their name meant "the wolf pack" in Spanish, but los montoneros actually means "the workers" in Spanish.

Langton wrote the dominance of the Hells Angels in Manitoba was such that "the opposition [to the Hells Angels] coalesced around one man- one strange, untrustworthy man. Small with a hateful stare, Michael Sandham didn't look like a theology student and he didn't last very long as one either."

Michael James Sandham (born 1970), better known as "Little Beaker", is a Canadian outlaw biker, criminal and convicted murderer currently serving a life sentence for his role in the Shedden massacre of 2006.

Sandham, a former theology student, soldier, policeman and outlaw biker was described by journalist Jane Sims as "a control freak driven by bizarre ambition" to take over the outlaw biker scene in Manitoba.

Sandham had served in Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry of the Canadian Army between 1990 and 1994, being honourably discharged as a trained private.

After leaving the Army in June 1994, Sandham went to work as a vacuum cleaning salesman in Winnipeg while claiming to be a spy with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

He was so unsuccessful as a salesman that he depended upon the local food bank for his meals as he could not afford to buy groceries and had to ask his wife's grandmother to help pay his rent.

Sandham was very controlling of his wife Cynthia, refusing to allow her to have a job despite his financial problems.

Sandham then set up a martial arts studio with money borrowed from his wife's family in his native Winnipeg.

In his pamphlets promoting his studio, Sandham claimed to have won 12 martial arts competitions in Canada, the United States and South Korea, and to have a sixth-degree black belt in Hwa Rang Do, a black belt in jujutsu, a fourth degree black belt in taekwondo and the red slash of a master in wing chun kung fu.

There are no records by any martial arts associations showing that Sandham had won any tournaments or had been awarded any belts at all.

Sandham also claimed to been trained in the martial arts by Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, Dan Inosanto, and Bill "Superfoot" Wallace.

Finally, Sandham claimed to have invented a new martial art, which he modestly named after himself, called "Sando", of which he was the "world grand master" of and he professed to have marvelous psychological effects in improving one's life, saying that the "modern warrior style" of "Sando" was for social "winners" like himself.

Describing himself in the third-person, Sandham wrote in one of his pamphlets that was full of his usual spelling mistakes: "He is a VIP Protection Specialist and has protected such persons such as former Chief of Staff General DeChastelane [de Chastelain], former Prime Minister Brian Molrunney [Mulroney], Princess Patricia and various other higher military staff. Mr. Sandham was also involved in crowd security during Princess Diana and Prince Charles visit to Canada".

Sandham started to abuse steroids and under their influence became violent towards his wife Cynthia, as she stated that he beat her and their sons constantly.

Sandham always falsely claimed to have served in the elite Canadian Airborne Regiment, which was disbanded in 1995 after several soldiers had tortured and murdered Somalis during an ill-fated tour in Somalia in 1992–93, and videos had emerged of racist hazing with white soldiers humiliating black soldiers.

Furthermore, Sandham maintained that he fought in the Bosnian War during his time in the Army, performing top secret missions he could not talk about, and to have served as a bodyguard to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and to the Royal Family, neither claim which is supported by his service records.

Sandham's service records show that during his four years in the Army that he neither saw combat nor served overseas.

In 1998, Sandham's studio went bankrupt after two years with many of his former students complaining he did not know any martial arts at all, and that Sando was a fraud; at about the same time, Sandham's first wife divorced him, stating he was an abusive husband who had regularly beaten her up.

After the failure of his martial arts business, Sandham joined the police force of Sainte-Anne-des-Chénes as an auxiliary constable in 1999.

While in Sainte-Anne-des-Chénes, Sandham' nickname was "Poo-Bear".

When he joined the Sainte-Anne-des-Chénes police force, Sandham listed his "technical skills" as "martial arts (sixth-dan black belt), demolitions/explosives, riot control, internal security/antiterrorism and parachute training".

Sandham then joined the East St. Paul police force as an auxiliary constable starting in 1999 after graduating from the police academy and then as a full constable from 2000 onward Sandham was described in police evaluations as "friendly and co-operative" and an excellent marksmen; though at the same time there were complaints that Sandham's English was marred by frequent spelling and grammar mistakes.

In a typical report, Sandham wrote that the "elimate [climate] of discipline" was better in the Army than with the police, but he still found the "elimate of discipline" with the police to be very good.

However, the East St. Paul police force had only about ten policemen, as the rural community of East St. Paul could not compete with the wages and pensions being offered by the neighboring Winnipeg police force, so the East St. Paul police service was prepared to take whoever they could get.

In October 2002, Sandham asked for leave, claiming he had to attend the funeral of a relative in Montreal.

In fact, he attended the funeral of an Outlaws leader in Sault Ste. Marie.

Sandham then called in sick for an entire week, and while supposedly sick in Montreal, had spent the week in Woodstock at the Outlaws' clubhouse, trying to join their club.

Sandham was photographed associating with the Outlaws by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), which forwarded the photos to the East St. Paul police chief David Grant.

When asked by Grant if he was associating with outlaw bikers, Sandham denied it.

At this point, Grant produced the photos, saying he was disappointed that not only was Sandham associating with bikers, but he had just lied to him.

Sandham resigned rather than be fired.

Sandham left the East St. Paul force on 15 October 2002.

Sandham's attempt to join the Outlaws failed as they discovered that he was a former policeman and outlaw biker clubs did not accept either current or former policeman into their ranks.

Afterwards, Sandham was consumed with the ambition to take over the outlaw biker scene in Manitoba, and ultimately Canada, believing he was far more intelligent than the average outlaw biker and he could scheme his way to the top.

As an attempt to give himself credibility with outlaw bikers, who are often racists, Sandham started to talk about supposed service with the Canadian Airborne Regiment, and he claimed to have been involved with the racist practices that led to the regiment being disbanded.