A man who played a key role in orchestrating a series of antisemitic attacks across Sydney, including the firebombing of a childcare centre, has been sentenced to a maximum five years in prison.
Nicholas James Alexander pleaded guilty in December to six charges of being an accessory before the fact and one count of knowingly directing a criminal group over the string of attacks, which took place in January 2025.
Warning: This story contains an image of a Nazi symbol.
Prosecutors had told the court that between late 2024 and 2025, Alexander, 32, had hired criminals on behalf of an unknown group overseas, who were aiming to “divide the Jewish and Arab communities” in Australia.
The court heard he had ordered them to scrawl antisemitic slogans on cars and properties at Queens Park, spray swastikas on Newtown Synagogue and set cars alight outside a home that previously belonged to the co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin.
Alexander was arrested by Strike Force Pearl in March 2025.
In sentencing on Wednesday, Magistrate Jennifer Atkinson said Alexander had played a “key role” in commissioning and organising the crimes.
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The court heard that included organising stolen cars or stolen number plates to be used in the attacks, issuing instructions about how to make and use Molotov cocktails, coordinating drop-off locations, passing on instructions and telling his co-accused what to do.
She said signal messages between Alexander and his co-accused which were tendered in evidence showed he knew what the fallout of his actions would be.
“It was clear from the messages that Mr Alexander and his co-accused knew that the preparations … were part of organised activity that targeted the Sydney Jewish community in arson attacks … and was a deliberate tactic to divide the Arab and Jewish communities to further the aims of the larger criminal group overseas,” she said.
Crimes financially motivated, court told
Magistrate Atkinson read out a letter in which Alexander had told her, “I don’t have any ill will towards the Jewish community,” and said his crimes were financially motivated.
“I owed money for my drug use, my habit had cost me more than I could afford to pay. I felt trapped, but when I was offered a way out, I felt, and was made to feel that I had no choice but to take what was in front of me,” he wrote.
The magistrate said she accepted Alexander’s crimes were not racially motivated.
But she pointed out that his explanations were remarkably similar to the instructions he had given to his co-accused about what to say if caught.
In those messages he had written: “Here’s the spill for anyone that gets grabbed. Why did you do this? To pay off drug debt. To who? Arabs. Which Arabs? Ones I get my drugs off.”
Magistrate Atkinson said Alexander owned a Porsche and appeared to have plenty of money, but appeared to be motivated by the “large sums” that were clearly on offer and, to a lesser extent, “gaining favour” with criminal groups overseas.
‘Attacks on Australian society’
Several red swastikas spray painted across the front of Newtown Synagogue. (ABC News: Anushri Sood)
In handing down a sentence of five years with a three-year, four-month non-parole period, the magistrate said the central nature of Alexander’s role in the crimes could not be ignored.
“He was the person in Australia planning and controlling the commission of the offences,” she said.
She said the sentence reflected the fear and distress the attacks caused Jewish Australians and the broader community, which “compounded day by day throughout the month of January 2025” as the attacks continued.
“People who were entitled to feel safe and should have been safe in their homes, their places of worship and education and on the streets of Sydney did not know what would come next.
“These attacks were also attacks on Australian society generally by persons outside our community. They were intended to divide our community.”
Mr Ryvchin said the sentence was “appropriate” as Alexander’s actions had “made people fear for their lives and the safety of their children”.
“His actions could have so easily caused people to be burned alive,” Mr Ryvchin said in a statement.
“I believe it also contributed to an environment of escalating attacks on Australian Jews which culminated in a massacre.”
Alexander, appearing in prison greens via videolink, was stony-faced as the sentence was read.
His partner wept in court.
With time already served, he will be eligible for parole in July 2028.