Nationalist activist Joel Davis refused bail again due to his political beliefs

Australian nationalist activist Joel Davis has had his latest bail application rejected by a magistrate who remarked she couldn’t divorce his case from the current political climate.

Mr Davis, 30, has been in solitary confinement and missed the birth of his first child since being arrested on November 20 and charged with “using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence” over an alleged Telegram post directed at federal MP Allegra Spender.

He appeared by videolink in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday, a day after his barrister Sebastian De Brennan made a bail application which could not be heard immediately due to the court being overloaded with 680 other cases.

Mr De Brennan argued his client should be released on bail as he had already spent two months in custody in onerous conditions, had been offered a place in a “positive lifestyle program” arranged by the NSW Courts Chaplains Association, his partner was suffering from post-partum issues, and he would accept bail conditions banning him from all social media use.

He told the court that Mr Davis’s alleged statement – “Patriots – I bid thee to rhetorically rape Allegra Spender”, written in response to the federal MP calling for him and other members of the NSN to be jailed for a protest against Jewish lobby influence outside NSW Parliament – was a “philosophical term of art” and would be seen by a reasonable person as being distinct from a threat of “actual rape”.

“What he is saying is that against the power structure of government, where there is a disproportionate power balance, that a particular politician needs to be ‘rhetorically raped’.”

Mr De Brennan then presented Magistrate Christine Haskett with sentencing statistics showing that of 2,000 convictions for the same charge, only 6.5% had resulted in a prison sentence, and submitted that Mr Davis’s alleged offence was at the lower end of the spectrum.

He further argued that Mr Davis was in custody for the first time and would spend almost three months in jail if bail was refused even though a “full-time custodial sentence is by no means inevitable”, and raised the prospect of a long delay due to an incomplete prosecution brief of evidence, including 220,000 data files downloaded from Mr Davis’s phone delivered after Wednesday’s hearing.

But Crown Prosecutor Justin Cho opposed the bail application, arguing it should be rejected for the same reason as Mr Davis’s previous attempt to be released on December 23 as there were no fresh circumstances other than the Chaplains program.

He referred to the original decision to refuse bail by Magistrate Daniel Covington on November 21 due to Mr Davis’s alleged risk of reoffending, his “espoused ideology”, then-membership of the National Socialist Network, and participation in the Jewish lobby protest.

Mr Cho told the court that Mr Davis should not be released back to his home in Bondi due to its “significant Jewish community” and it being in Ms Spender’s electorate, and argued that the Chaplains program did not address the alleged offending.

Mr De Brennan objected to the prosecution’s references to Mr Davis’s political ideology and participation in the November 8 rally, and told the court the NSN had announced it was disbanding in response to new “hate speech” legislation, which was confirmed by Mr Davis.

“[The Jewish lobby] demonstration, however unpalatable it is to you and me, that was a lawfully approved protest outside Parliament,” Mr De Brennan said.

“The Crown is pointing to things about [Mr Davis] being a Nazi, which are not relevant in my submission, he was at a protest authorised by this state government, this is not a court of public morality.”

“I can’t divorce the matter from the circumstances of what’s happened in last month,” Ms Haskett responded.

The court heard Mr Davis was still on bail in South Australia after being charged over an eagle on a belt buckle worn in Adelaide that police allege is a Nazi symbol, but a second charge over an NSN logo had been dropped, and that he was also facing a series of “hate speech” charges laid by Victoria Police while in custody.

Mr Cho argued Mr Davis’s alleged breach of his South Australian bail with the alleged Telegram post was another factor considered by Mr Covington, said the charge was punishable by a maximum five years’ jail, the matter was proceeding on-time, and relevant data files from the Cellebrite download were highlighted.

Ms Haskett said while refusing the bail application that the only change in Mr Davis’s circumstances since the last bail application was the Chaplain’s program, but said it did not address “the defendant’s radicalisation”.

“The only really new material is the NSW Courts Chaplain’s program, that’s new but my view is that material is not particularly relevant to a grant of bail,” she said.

Mr Davis will face court again on February 11.

Header image: Left, right, Mr Davis (supplied).

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