How homegrown white supremacist groups reportedly influenced the Australian terrorist who allegedly killed fifty worshippers in two New Zealand mosques on 15 March 2019.........
Three years before the
mass shooting in Christchurch, [name redacted] was lavishing praise on prominent
Australian far-right nationalist Blair Cottrell, referring to him as
"Emperor".
The ABC's Background
Briefing has uncovered an archive of comments from the accused mosque shooter,
which were posted on the now deleted Facebook pages of Australian far-right
groups United Patriots Front (UPF) and True Blue Crew (TBC).
The comments give an
insight for the first time into [name redacted]'s early radical views.
At this stage, [name redacted] has been charged with one count of murder.
But in the wake of the
massacre, his social media accounts were wiped from the internet, leaving very
little information regarding the connections he made with individuals and
groups on the far-right that operate prominently online.
What remained were
fragments and digital impressions of a well-travelled young man who frequented
hate-filled anonymous messaging boards and was deeply engaged in a global
alt-right culture.
Although the shooter
claimed in a manifesto uploaded before the attack that he was never a member of
any group, the archive verified by Background Briefing reveals an allegiance to
a number of high-profile Australian far-right figures.
And while specific
details remain murky, these revelations about [name redacted]'s interactions with
domestic far-right groups shed light on a young man captivated by white
nationalism and its high-profile figurehead, Mr Cottrell.
Since then he has become
the highest profile leader of Australia's alt right.
For many he is the
symbol of the so-called "white resistance" in Australia and is the
figurehead for a movement that in recent times has been defined by its virulent
anti-Islamic views.
Before the Facebook page
of his group, the UPF, was deleted, it had more than 120,000 followers, and the
data reveals [name redacted] also followed the group.
[name redacted]'s comments,
dating back as early as April 2016, showed the Australian-born man was a vocal
supporter of then UPF-leader Mr Cottrell.
In the information, [name redacted] made more than 30 comments on the UPF and TBC pages over a 10-month
period.
Although there are no
screenshots of his comments on the UPF and TBC pages, Background Briefing has
verified their authenticity by comparing the archive's preserved metadata —
including Facebook ID numbers and timestamps — against other public posts
shared by UPF and TBC supporters.
This allowed us to
connect names to comments.
In one instance,
metadata shows that when members from the UPF violently clashed with
counter-protesters in Coburg in 2016, [name redacted] felt compelled to respond to Mr
Cottrell's critics online.
"Communists will
get what communists get, I would love to be there holding one end of the rope
when you get yours traitor," [name redacted] posted….
In the video, Mr Cottrell
and Mr Sewell are seen wearing neat collared shirts and grinning ear-to-ear as
they described Mr Trump's victory, declaring it as the end to political
correctness and "Marxism" in the US.
[name redacted] was online
celebrating with Mr Cottrell and Mr Sewell.
"Simply one of the
most important events in modern history," [name redacted] commented on the live
video.
It was here that [name redacted]was most effusive in his support of Mr Cottrell and the movement.
"Globalists and
Marxists on suicide watch, patriots and nationalists triumphant — looking
forward to Emperor Blair Cottrell coming soon," he wrote.
[name redacted] made similar
comments months earlier, when Mr Cottrell appeared on national TV.
"Knocked it out of
the park tonight Blair," he wrote.
"Your retorts had
me smiling, nodding, cheering and often laughing.
"Never believed we
would have a true leader of the nationalist movement in Australia, and
especially not so early in the game.
"Would gladly stand
behind you."
[name redacted]'s comments in
the same period also demonstrate he was invested in the rivalry between the
country's far-right groups.
He directed anger at one
of the UPF founders, Neil Erikson, and former UPF leader Shermon Burgess and
called them "useful idiots".
"Leave the
nationalist leadership to Blair and the TBC, or be named obvious plants and
traitors," [name redacted] wrote in July 2016 on the TBC Facebook page.
Those comments and their
metadata were archived in text form by an anonymous source when those pages
were still active on Facebook.
As far as we know the
ABC is the only media outlet with access to the archives.
The last activity we
have from [name redacted] on the UPF Facebook page is from January 2017, in response to
a post discussing Mr Cottrell's impending appearance in the Melbourne
Magistrates' Court over staging a fake beheading in Bendigo two years earlier.
[name redacted] was one of more
than 200 people who commented on this thread in support of Mr Cottrell.
Mr Cottrell and two other
former UPF members were found guilty of inciting serious contempt of Muslims in
September 2017.....
....a donation had been made
to UPF in [name redacted]'s name some years earlier.....
Michael Edison Hayden is
a senior investigator on white supremacists' digital strategies for the
Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), a non-profit which is tracking hate crimes
across the US and the world.
He said the Christchurch
shooting was a "new reality" where the views and statements of the
extreme far-right were having a profound reach on young disaffected men.
He said the accused
shooter's manifesto and social media strategy was more "self-aware and
performative" than anything he had seen.
"It's a signifier
he was immersed in this culture of radicalisation, that he is speaking to them
and he is responding to what he's seen from them and what he wants them to
see," Mr Hayden said.
Mr Hayden said
race-related killings from far-right personalities around the world were often
based on fears about being replaced by immigrants and having their white
identity erased.
"Once you get the
idea you're being eliminated, once you integrate that into your everyday way of
thinking, they feel like violence is being inflicted against them day in and
day out," he said.
"Which is, of
course, a complete perversion of the truth."
All this raises the question ; How many other men living on the NSW North Coast and elsewhere in Australia share [name redacted]'s world view?
