Former bikie Cameron Auld tells how he went from violent bikie to calming chaplain Chaplain Cameron Auld turned to God after years of being involved in gangs. Pic: Ric Frearson Source: News Corp Australia IT took a bullet to the head for Cameron Auld to find God. The former Ipswich bikie was shot at close range in his right temple with a sawn-off Remington .22 while sitting in his lounge room. As a youngster Mr Auld lived an unsavoury life littered with crime. His attacker was seeking revenge with the intent to kill. But by a miracle of physics or God, Mr Auld survived. Today, the now 53-year-old is helping prison inmates transform their lives. He's a chaplain at Goodna's St Francis Xavier Parish and at Wacol's Arthur Gorrie Correction Centre. Cameron Auld turned away from his bikie gang to become a chaplain after being shot in the head. Pic Ric Frearson In the past he spent months locked in detention centres but now assists murderers, pedophiles, rapists and drug users daily. "Everyone needs a chance and I am glad no one judged me too harshly when I was young," he said. Throughout school Mr Auld admits he developed a violent reputation as a fighter and soaked it up "almost with a pathological pride." The father-of-two has witnessed murders, been in car crashes and had friends killed but it took the shooting to force him to live his life differently. In 1979, he joined a well-known bikie gang where he found himself caught up in a whirlwind of crime. In 1980, Mr Auld was involved in a brawl in the Jindalee Hotel carpark where he admitted to brutally hurting other people. But in an act of revenge, he was targeted and shot in the head while sitting in his lounge room. Chaplain Cameron Auld works at Goodna's St Francis Xavier Parish at the Arthur Gorrie Remand Centre. Pic: Ric Frearson "I don't remember being transported to The Prince Charles Hospital but I woke the next morning with tubes running from my right nostril and mouth," he said. My friends, parents and girlfriend at the time (were) by my bedside. X-rays showed the projectile from a sawn-off Remington .22. "It had hit me in the right-hand temple at an acute angle and had skimmed along the contour of my skull and embedded itself one inch from impact point in my bone of my right temple," Mr Auld said. The extreme angle of the shot had saved my life. Why was I still living? Why me? I had hurt so many people and I'm still here? Should I be? Do I really deserve to be? Why did this God my mother and father had taught me about spare a man like me? I had actually enjoyed hurting people. I wanted to know more about this God. After being discharged from hospital, Mr Auld rode into the Toowong bikie clubhouse to get out of the gang. Despite a verbal confrontation, and numerous threats, I handed over my colours and patches, left and to this day have never returned to the club. Leaving didn't come easy, resulting in 20 years of torment. "All I will divulge is death threats, a burnt out Triumph motorbike and my fox terrier dog "Bugs" with a cross bow arrow through her head are the legacies of this," he said. To him it's a sense of accomplishment being able to turn his life around and teach those behind bars about believing in God, and to pray.