Thomas Sewell, leader of a Neo-Nazi group who allegedly attacked a security guard at the Channel Nine offices in Melbourne has been charged.
On Tuesday night, Victoria Police’s counter-terrorism unit charged Sewell, age 27, with affray, recklessly causing injury and unlawful assault.
He and another man, aged 21, demanded to see A Current Affair staff at the Nine offices on Monday. A video published via the Daily Mail and A Current Affair showed that when a security guard escorted the men out, the guard was allegedly attacked while racist abuse was shouted at him.
Sewell is a former Australian Defence Force member and is one of the leaders of the National Socialist Network, a far-right group.
A Current Affair had run a feature on Neo-Nazis, where it was revealed that Australia will move to outlaw the white supremacist group the Sonnenkrieg Division.
Mentioned in the program was Sewell’s National Socialist Network, which gained press attention when a group of around fourty white men were filmed chanting ‘Ku Klux Klan’, ‘heil Hitler’ and ‘white supremacy’ while camping in the Grampians in January.
Victorian Premier Dan Andrews condemned the assault, which he described as “sickening”, asserting that “there’s no place for those attitudes and conduct in a modern Victoria.”
“Those views are just wicked and there is no place for them”
Sewell has been bailed to appear before Melbourne Magistrates Court on July 27.