Australian nationalist Thomas Sewell has been found guilty of intimidating a police officer and the officer’s wife with comments made on a podcast, and contravening restraining orders by talking about the charges on another podcast.
Mr Sewell, 32, the leader of political organisation White Australia, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday where Magistrate Michelle Hodgson delivered her ruling on eight charges following a two-week contested hearing that was supposed to last three days but was plagued by delays.
The charges related to comments Mr Sewell made on the Joel and Blair Show podcast after a National Socialist Network protest in October last year where he said he had identified an officer who had assaulted members of the NSN by grabbing their faces and pulling down their masks.
Mr Sewell, who represented himself in court, did not name the officer, only saying he was looking into how he could identify him publicly without breaking the law in order to hold him accountable for his actions during the protest, and claimed to have found social media accounts belonging to the officer and his wife.
But counter-terrorism officer informed the police officer about the comments and warned him to lock down his social media accounts and “be vigilant”, causing him to search for and watch the podcast, which he testified made him feel and his wife feel fearful for their safety.
Mr Sewell was then charged with intimidating a police officer and family member, and given Personal Safety Intervention Orders (PSIOs) prohibiting him from sharing information about the officer and his wife.
When Mr Sewell revealed that he had been charged and given the PSIOs during a second podcast appearance, he was charged again with contravening the orders, causing another person to publish them because he made the statements on a podcast run by someone else, and refusing to follow a police direction because he did not hand over the passwords to his electronic devices.
Ms Hodgson on Friday found Mr Sewell guilty of contravening the PSIOs, but not guilty of causing another person to publish his comments about the protected persons, and not guilty of refusing to follow police directions.
During Thursday’s hearing Mr Sewell described Victoria Police as “professional liars” when explaining why he did not hand over his passwords.
“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 earlier 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.
“In the Crown’s evidence, I put forward that the primary motivation [shown] is concerning public affairs, and making the public aware of this police officer’s behaviours after the protest which led to injuries,” 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 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,” Mr Sewell 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.
Mr Sewell 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 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 hearing was repeatedly interrupted on the first day, a situation which 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 officers 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 NSN 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).
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