Australian nationalist Thomas Sewell asked police why they were arresting him instead of a Chinese national who scalded a baby with hot coffee in a heated interview conducted after he was raided for threatening to hang the fugitive at a protest.
Mr Sewell, 33, was convicted of offensive behaviour and sentenced to an 18-month Community Corrections Order with 200 hours of community service on Tuesday, more than one-and-a-half years after the demonstration outside the Chinese Consulate in Melbourne.
During the protest Mr Sewell and about 35 other then-members of the now-disbanded National Socialist Network demanded the Chinese government hand over the perpetrator, who attacked four-month-old baby Luka in Brisbane in August 2024 because he “wanted revenge on White people”.
Police interview Thomas Sewell after he was arrested in 2024 over a protest where he threatened to hang a Chinese man who scalded a baby with hot coffee.
He demands to know why he was arrested and not the perpetrator, and asks why he and his family were harassed by police with… pic.twitter.com/ZU6QlHZd0v
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) July 1, 2026
The attacker was able to flee Australia for China after police failed to specify his ethnicity and did not appeal to Asian communities to “avoid bias”, and he is yet to be brought to justice despite pleas from Luka’s mother and authorities in both countries knowing who he is.
In a November 2024 interview with Victoria Police played in court and obtained by Noticer News, Mr Sewell pushed back at questions from police about a speech he made during the protest where he vowed to hang the Chinese man “from the tallest building in this country”.
“You are clearly saying that if he ever sets foot back in this country that you will find him and personally kill him,” an officer put to Mr Sewell.
“Which one did I threaten to kill?” Mr Sewell asked in response.
“The one that poured coffee over this-,” the officer replied before Mr Sewell interjected and said he didn’t know who the man was.
“I don’t have his name, but you know who I’m talking about,” the officer said.
“Well, hopefully we can work out who he is so he can come to court, so when we’re in the magistrates court, and you’re prosecuting me, we can have the complaint, can’t we?” Mr Sewell said.
“They can come to the court, and they can complain about how upset they are that I’ve allegedly threatened to kill them.
“And you can lock me up and send me away for saying bad words, and maybe, while you’re at f**king at it, you c**ts can arrest him, for throwing boiling water at a baby.”
Thomas Sewell speaks to the media after being convicted over a protest where he threatened to hang a Chinese fugitive who attacked an Australian baby with hot coffee, and demanded China hand him over.
Follow: @NoticerNews pic.twitter.com/J7ahOTvlH5
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) June 30, 2026
Mr Sewell went on to tell the officers that about a month before the baby was attacked he and his family had been harassed and intimidated by police armed with assault rifles while flying out of Brisbane.
“They pointed machine guns at my missus and my baby, why? Why was there AFP and Queensland Police waiting for me at the domestic terminal when I was leaving Brisbane?” he asked.
“What crime had I committed? Did I throw boiling water in a baby’s face? And the Federal Police and Queensland Police pointed machine guns at my family at the airport, but they let this man walk out of the country, and now you’re arresting me.”
Mr Sewell then said “hail Odin”, which prosecutors told a court earlier this year he said in response to most questions during the interview, and which police considered “akin to a no comment”.
Video of the protest played to the court at a previous hearing:
New video shows right-wing activists protesting outside China’s consulate in Melbourne today.
They demanded the extradition of a Chinese man who scalded a White Australian baby with hot coffee in a suspected racist hate crime.
Full report: https://t.co/1gdmb9RKKQ pic.twitter.com/E8Xk8ReOsq
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) October 26, 2024
He was eventually charged with offensive behaviour and found guilty in February, but mounted a constitutional challenge on political freedom grounds that was rejected by Magistrate Patrick Southey in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
While handing down his sentence Mr Southey lectured Mr Sewell about the protest, which he said “looked like Germany in the 1930s” and called “intolerable” and “repugnant”.
He also brought up that Mr Sewell immigrated from New Zealand as a child, and accused him of failing to assimilate into Australian culture.
Mr Southey said Australia was a “easy-going, tolerant, diverse society, made up of all sorts of backgrounds” and “welcoming to immigrants like you”, Mr Sewell responded: “No, I think you’ll find that Australia was founded on the racism that you want to criminalise.”
Header image: Left, Mr Sewell during the interview (supplied). Right, the baby attacker (Queensland Police). Inset, baby Luka recovering from his burns (supplied).
