A young air conditioning technician who spent 299 days in jail after being arrested for possessing “violent extremist material” has been sentenced to time served.
Zachary Jarrod Hulse, 21, was among several men arrested during a “national blitz on prohibited symbols” carried out by the Australian Federal Police’s National Security Investigations (NSI) teams in early December while the Bondi terrorists were planning their attack undetected.
Police said at the time that Hulse’s Brisbane home was raided because he imported a “significant quantity of flags and literature”, and that officers found violent extremist material on his phone.
Hulse was then refused bail in court 11 days later despite having no criminal record and being diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and obsessive compulsive disorder, after prosecutors argued no conditions would reduce the risk of more offences being committed.
He pleaded guilty to one count of possessing or controlling violent extremist material on July 7, and appeared in Brisbane District Court on Monday where he was sentenced to time served.
Hulse was immediately released having been behind bars for 299 days since his arrest, and spending more time in prison than many violent criminals and child sex offenders.
Just two weeks earlier a Brisbane real estate agent who was caught with hundreds of child exploitation images and videos of the worst kind was spared jail in the same court, and in June an RSL worker also avoided jail for similar offences.
In July a Sri Lankan immigrant was sentenced to eight months in jail for a vicious bottle attack on a Brisbane train, but was released having spent 89 days in custody on remand.
A 43-year-old British citizen who was arrested during the same series of raids as Hulse and charged over alleged swords with “swastika symbology” and posts that “espoused pro-Nazi ideology” was deported weeks later after having his visa cancelled by immigration minister Tony Burke.
Header image: Hulse being arrested on December 3 (AFP).
