Australian nationalist leader Thomas Sewell has labelled Victoria Police “professional liars” on the second-last day of his trial for allegedly intimidating a police officer and his wife with comments on a podcast.
Magistrate Michelle Hodgson will hand down her verdict on Friday after a delay-plagued contested hearing where Mr Sewell pleaded not guilty to the police intimidation charges and other charges of breaching Personal Safety Intervention Orders laid after the first charges.
The court heard that Mr Sewell did not identify the police officer or the officer’s wife by name during the podcast, but was charged anyway, and then was charged again with breaching the PSIOs for revealing during a later podcast that he had been charged.
Mr Sewell, who was raided multiple times by armed police over the podcast appearances and had his electronic devices seized each time, asked police in an interview played to the court if they would charge him again if he publicly announced that he was being charged for breaching the PSIOs by telling the public that he had been charged, and the officers indicated that he likely would be.
“Victoria Police are professional liars,” Mr Sewell told the court on Thursday, referring to charge that related to him saying he wanted to get legal advice about the intervention orders.
“The rights of accused persons to question police instructions should be respected. I am being politically persecuted by Victoria Police,” he said when the magistrate objected to the comment.
Mr Sewell told the court the prosecution had not presented any evidence that his primary motivation was to “hurt”, and that he had been trying to inform the public that the police officer he is accused of intimidating had assaulted several members of his activist group at a demonstration.
“In the Crown’s evidence, I put forward that the primary motivation is concerning public affairs, and making the public aware of this police officer’s behaviours after the protest which led to injuries and other such things,” he said.
“I put forward that the evidence of what is said on the podcast and the evidence of what is said in the police interviews … proves that I displayed restraint and empathy, and that I reiterated my primary motivation.”
Mr Sewell also insisted that the conversation on the podcast constituted political communication.
Police interviews played to the court earlier in the hearing showed Mr Sewell admonishing police for having “infinite resources” to investigate his comments while African gangs rampaged across Melbourne with machetes, and said the only recourse he had to respond when police acted illegally was to tell the public what had happened.
He said police and corruption watchdogs refused to hear complaints from him and his political group about police brutality, corruption and persecution due to their political beliefs, leaving him with only one outlet to expose their behaviour.
“I didn’t encourage anyone to do anything illegal … I didn’t even mention the name, that’s how nice I am,” he said in the interview, and told the court on Thursday that the only reason any members of the public are aware of the police officer’s name is because he was charged.
“I put forward that the police and prosecution handling of the matter has actually caused more fear, and intimidation, and distress, and apprehension to the parties involved,” he said.
He added that his comments were not directed towards the police officer, but were made on a political podcast with a live viewership of about 500 of his regular supporters and followers of his political movement.
“Furthermore [the police officer] went out of his way to investigate on his own behalf and search up my name and search up these podcasts and look for my commentary,” he said.
“This is not an example of the accused finding the email address or the personal phone number of the police officer and sending these things to them. This is an example of public communication, yes, but it’s a very select cross-section of the public.”
The magistrate then had to adjourn the hearing because her laptop stopped working.
What was supposed to be a three-day hearing has dragged on for two weeks due to constant technical difficulties with video and audio in court, and shambolic preparation from the prosecution that included witnesses unavailable to give testimony or withdrawing their testimony at the last minute, inaudible video appearances, and missing documents and charge sheets.
At one point personal messages were flashed up on screen while the prosecution attempted to play one of the podcast recordings.
The first day was plagued by delays that continued into day two when the proceedings were mysteriously adjourned due to an unspecified “threat to safety”, only for Mr Sewell to be arrested by a phalanx of waiting police over an unrelated matter when he left court.
Mr Sewell is in custody on remand after being refused bail last week on charges laid over an alleged clash between the National Socialist Network and a group of left-wing extremists on August 31.
When the hearing resumed this week, overcrowding in the Victorian court system meant there were no cells available and Mr Sewell had to appear by video link, a situation which he, Ms Hodgson and Prosecutor Michelle Mahady agreed was “disadvantageous”, and the magistrate insisted he be brought to court for the remainder of the hearing.
Header image: Left, right, Thomas Sewell being arrested mid-trial last week (Nine News).
The post Nationalist leader dubs police ‘professional liars’ during farcical ‘intimidation’ trial first appeared on The Noticer.
The Noticer
