{"id":44627,"date":"2019-02-19T15:57:29","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T05:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=44627"},"modified":"2019-02-20T19:57:10","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T09:57:10","slug":"neo-nazi-blair-cottrell-fails-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/?p=44627","title":{"rendered":"Neo-Nazi Blair Cottrell fails in court"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The former leader of the now-defunct ‘United Patriots Front’ turned ‘The Lads Society’ organiser, Blair Cottrell, was in court again today …<\/p>\n

Far-right leader Blair Cottrell fails in High Court bid
\nAAP
\nFebruary 19, 2019<\/p>\n

Far-right activist Blair Cottrell has been rejected in his bid to fight for \u201cfree speech\u201d in the High Court but will continue his campaign in Victoria\u2019s County Court.<\/p>\n

The United Patriots Front leader appeared in the County Court today to appeal his conviction for inciting hatred, contempt and ridicule of Muslims, after making a video beheading a dummy in protest of a Bendigo mosque. Cottrell and supporters Neil Erikson and Christopher Neil Shortis were convicted in September 2017<\/a> and fined $2000 each.<\/p>\n

Lawyer John Bolton had lodged an application with the High Court, arguing Cottrell had been charged with an \u201cinvalid law\u201d under the Australian constitution.<\/p>\n

He previously told AAP \u201cfree speech\u201d was protected under the constitution, \u201cwhich protects political discourse\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Bolton told Judge Lisa Hannan on Tuesday the High Court dismissed the application, referring the matter back to the County Court. The lawyer said he would now argue there was \u201cno such class of persons as Muslims\u201d that could be offended by the video, given the variety among the Islamic faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho is this supposed to have caused people to think bad thoughts about?\u201d he argued, adding he\u2019d call witnesses to examine \u201cwhat \u2018Muslim\u2019 means\u201d. He added a comment about Saudi Arabian beheadings, to which Judge Hannan quickly replied was \u201cnot relevant\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Bolton also asked the judge to hear the \u201cconstitutional matter\u201d, requiring her to notify the attorney-general but she said she didn\u2019t have power to determine a constitutional matter.<\/p>\n

The prosecution plans to call six witnesses to the trial, including City of Bendigo council workers and police.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s being drawn out deliberately, I think, probably to see how much money we\u2019ve got,\u201d Cottrell told reporters outside court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to give up.\u201d Cottrell was supported in court by Erikson, who earlier abandoned his appeal bid.<\/p>\n

After the hearing, Cottrell tweeted a video telling followers he hadn\u2019t \u201cfailed anything\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prosecution has found a law that the County Court can hear that matter \u2014 the High Court doesn\u2019t need to, so the constitutional matter has been sent back to County Court for Judge Hannan to hear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t failed anything. The matter is still active. The law still may be unconstitutional.\u201d The appeal was set down for 10 days from August 8, which Judge Hannan said she thought was too long.<\/p>\n

Cottrell next returns to court on June 5 for directions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See also<\/em> : Far-right leader fails in High Court bid<\/a>, Amber Wilson\/AAP, news dot com dot au, February 19, 2019 | Far-right activist Blair Cottrell to continue ‘fight for free speech’ after High Court bid rejected<\/a>, Benjamin Ansell\/AAP, 9 News, February 19, 2019.<\/p>\n

\u2022 As reported here and elsewhere (9 News), serial pest and former UPF flunkey Neil Erikson was also in court to support his former fuehrer — Erikson is due back in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in May to fight charges of assault, riot and affray.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Lawyer John Bolton repped Erikson at a previous court hearing in June, at which he successfully argued for an alteration in bail conditions so as to allow Erikson & Co. to do politics ‘n’ that. ABC<\/a>: ‘A magistrate agreed to vary the men’s bail conditions today to allow them to associate for the “purpose of engaging in lawful political communication or assembling lawfully”. Outside court, Mr Erikson said it was important the group could “meet up and discuss politics” as they planned to register a political party called Cooks Convicts.’ Naturally, the party was never registered, and the name abandoned for another, ‘It’s OK To Be White’, which was also never registered; currently, Erikson is promoting Fraser ‘Final Solution’ Anning’s new party, the ‘Conservative Nationals’. See<\/em> : Fraser Anning\u2019s Neo-Nazi connections<\/a>, The White Rose Society, January 11, 2019.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Above<\/em> (L to R) : John Bolton, Blair Cottrell, Mark McDonald, Oscar Tuckfield. McDonald is the former fuehrer of neo-Nazi groupuscule ‘Squadron 88’ turned The Lads Society organiser in Sydney<\/a>; on Tuckfield and McDonald, see also<\/em> : Neo-Nazi infiltration of the Young Nationals in NSW<\/a> (October 11, 2018).<\/p>\n

\u2022 In October last year, Bolton organised a very smol ‘International Freedom of Speech’<\/a> rally outside Lakemba, which was attended by Cottrell, a smattering of local neo-Nazis, and various other odds & sods, including Rino ‘Bluebeard’ Grgurovic — Grgurovic is due in Melbourne Magistrates\u2019 Court on February 26 over assault charges.<\/p>\n

\u2022 As 9 News notes, Cottrell ‘has been convicted of numerous serious offences including arson and stalking’, along with seven counts of intentionally damaging property, failing to comply with a community-based order, two counts of recklessly causing serious injury, aggravated burglary, property damage, trafficking testosterone, possessing a controlled weapon and breaching court orders. Cottrell, as \u2018Bruce\u2019, appeared in a documentary about youth in the maximum-security Youth Unit at Port Phillip Prison in Truganina, in which he describes<\/a> how he abused steroids, stalked his former partner and her boyfriend, tried to kill him, set fire to their house, and eventually got arrested, convicted, and sent to prison. You can read more about Cottrell’s political views here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The former leader of the now-defunct ‘United Patriots Front’ turned ‘The Lads Society’ organiser, Blair Cottrell, was in court again today … Far-right leader Blair Cottrell fails in High Court bid AAP February 19, 2019 Far-right activist Blair Cottrell has … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,29,6,16,9,15],"tags":[2033,2247,3118,2025,2988,2047],"class_list":["post-44627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-fascism","category-broken-windows","category-history","category-media","category-state","category-war-on-terror","tag-blair-cottrell","tag-john-bolton","tag-lads-society","tag-neil-erikson","tag-the-lads-society","tag-united-patriots-front"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6AyE-bBN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44627"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44638,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44627\/revisions\/44638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slackbastard.anarchobase.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}