Australian nationalist Thomas Sewell has appeared in court charged with “offensive behaviour” over a rally through the Victorian city of Ballarat almost two years ago.
The leader of political organisation White Australia is accused of shouting “Australia for the White Man”, “White man, fight back” and “hail victory” along with a group of about 30 masked members of the National Socialist Network (NSN) during the march on December 3, 2023, the anniversary of the Eureka Stockade.
The 32-year-old, who is the only person charged over the rally, is also accused of chanting “White man, fight back” and “hail victory” and at a hearing in May asked a magistrate to throw the case out on the grounds that he was communicating politically, which he has an implied right to do under the constitution.
Mr Sewell, who is representing himself, appeared in Ballarat Magistrates Court on Monday via videolink from Barwon Prison, where he is on remand on 25 unrelated charges laid earlier this month over an alleged clash with far-left antifa extremists in Melbourne on August 31.
Barrister Shaun Ginsbourg, appearing on behalf of Victoria Police, told the court the prosecution would call seven witnesses, including a professor of German history who would give expert testimony about Mr Sewell’s alleged actions on the day and their alleged “association with the Nazi movement”, The Courier reported.
He told the court the expert evidence would help the prosecution show that Mr Sewell’s alleged behaviour was “offensive in all the circumstances”, but Mr Sewell said it “cannot be relevant at all to a criminal matter as to whether someone has crossed the threshold of offending members of the public with lewd acts or swearing,” The Ballarat News reported.
“I reject this submission of an expert witness on German history … it has absolutely no relevance,” Mr Sewell said.
“German history cannot be relevant to the criminal matter, whatever the charge actually consists of. I put before the court that this is completely rejected, it’s completely irrelevant.”
Mr Sewell then argued that if “nonsense like this” was to be allowed by the court, then he should also be able to call expert witnesses, to which Magistrate Mike Wardell said he was open to.
“Well, the legal arguments are that this is not a charge of displaying a Nazi symbol, so it has no relevance to German history,” Mr Sewell said.
He told the court he intends to call two of his own witnesses, including a member of the public, and will continue to fight the charge on constitutional grounds.
The matter will be heard again on October 7 before a three-day hearing scheduled for October 27.
During his previous appearance in the Ballarat court, Mr Sewell said he was being subjected to a “malicious prosecution by activists within Victoria Police”, stated “there is no legislation that states a National Socialist slogan is offensive”, and argued “there is no case to answer”.
Earlier this month Mr Sewell was found guilty of intimidating a police officer and the officer’s wife with comments on a podcast where he did not name or identify them but said he had found their social media accounts, and was sentenced to 200 hours of community work.
Header image: Mr Sewell and members of the NSN in Ballarat (supplied).
