A Sydney tradesman with mental health issues has been sentenced to three years in jail for doing a Nazi salute on a livestream and making offensive and threatening online comments, including about politicians.
Nathan Ballesty, 28, pleaded guilty to one count of performing a Nazi salute, and six counts of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend, in relation to a series of posts and comments on X and Discord, where he talked about terrorism, and said he wanted to kidnap Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
He also posted death threats about immigration minister Tony Burke, talked about “concentration camps and mass exterminations” for immigrants, and said after the Bondi Islamic terrorist attack: “We need Cronulla 2.0 and a final solution, and we need it now.”
The fitter-machinist appeared from custody in the NSW District Court for sentencing on Friday, and became the first person sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 12 months for the Nazi salute, under new laws passed in response to the Bondi massacre.
Judge Phillip Mahony said in sentencing that Ballesty was a “loner who had embraced an online community of like-minded people”, called his offending “corrosive to social cohesion”, and said neo-Nazi material he shared could “shape young, vulnerable minds”, The Daily Telegraph reported.
“The community was grieving after the events of Bondi … [and Ballesty] embraced the violent killing of immigrants, and anti-Semitism and Islamophobia,” he said.
The judge said the Nazi salute legislation had been passed in response to a rise in extremism, and to “protect the community from vilification”, and said Ballesty’s offending was “highly non-compassionate”, “encouraged anti-Semitism”, and showed a “violent disdain” for parliamentarians.
Ballesty was originally charged with threatening serious harm against the Prime Minister for the kidnapping comments, but later had that charge downgraded. He told police he was joking, and never intended to put the idea into action.
The court also heard that Ballesty has previously been hospitalised for psychosis, and was showing signs of it during the offending, telling a doctor he felt “in sync” with his online algorithm, which was showing him right-wing content.
Judge Mahony sentenced Ballesty to three years’ imprisonment, backdated to January 13, with a recognisance order allowing him to be released next May with good behaviour required for another three years.
Ballesty was first arrested by social media police on December 21 in relation to the comments about Mr Albanese and was granted bail, but was then taken into custody when he breached a bail condition not to use encrypted communications platforms.
He was then hit with the remaining charges in March after investigators uncovered his other posts and the Nazi salute, which was performed during a livestream on Discord two days after the Bondi attack.
Header image: Nathan Ballesty (Facebook).
