{"id":470971,"date":"2026-02-10T16:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/470971\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T16:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:51:14","slug":"neo-nazi-claims-he-was-provoked-before-alleged-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/470971\/","title":{"rendered":"Neo-Nazi claims he was provoked before alleged attack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A neo-Nazi leader accused of leading an attack on an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/indigenous\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Aboriginal \">Aboriginal<\/a>protest site has flagged a possible plea but still claims he was provoked.Thomas Sewell, 32, and 13 other men faced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/melbourne\" target=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Melbourne\">Melbourne<\/a> Magistrates Court today after being charged over the Camp Sovereignty incident.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/29b298c8-3e1a-453c-a7cb-71d4c0a482cf.jpeg\"   alt=\"Thomas Sewell has been denied bail over an alleged attack on an Indigenous site in Melbourne.\"\/>Thomas Sewell has been denied bail over an alleged attack on an Indigenous site in Melbourne. (Justin McManus\/The Age)<\/p>\n<p>The men, dressed in black, allegedly held down occupants of the Indigenous camp before kicking and punching them.<\/p>\n<p>Three people were injured, with one woman requiring staples in her scalp to close a wound, the court was previously told.<\/p>\n<p>Sewell and co-accused Nathan Bull, Timothy Holger Lutze, Augustus Coolie Hartigan, Ryan Williams and Blake Cathcart today each requested an adjournment to March.<\/p>\n<p>Sewell&#8217;s lawyer Mathew Hopkins told the court he was in &#8220;resolution discussions&#8221; with the prosecution and they needed some time.<\/p>\n<p>Hopkins said the facts of the case were still in dispute but the prosecutor confirmed the charges were &#8220;not necessarily in issue&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Outside court, Sewell told reporters the allegation the attack was unprovoked was disputed.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/1ed14d6e-903e-40c2-99ce-20dbaaaedb97.jpeg\"   alt=\"The Age, News, 02\/09\/2025. Nathan Bull, member of the neo-Nazi group National Socialist Network is arrested by Victoria Police outside the Melbourne Magistrates' Court for his role in the attack on Camp Sovereignty on Sunday.\"\/>Nathan Bull was arrested by Victoria Police outside the Melbourne Magistrates&#8217; Court days after the alleged attack on Camp Sovereignty. (The Age)<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/f203b310-e566-4c95-b084-e056751ebdc4.jpeg\"   alt=\"Neonazi protest Melbourne\"\/>The alleged incident came after \ufeffthousands took to Melbourne&#8217;s CBD in a &#8216;March for Australia&#8217; anti-immigration protest. (9News)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If we can agree to the facts, then I&#8217;m happy to do what&#8217;s needed to be done,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This idea that I just walk around the street punching people for no reason&#8230; that&#8217;s just a lie.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Three of the accused &#8211; Zack Steven Dewaard, Billy Conheady and Haymish Busscher &#8211; formally pleaded not guilty to charges including violent disorder and affray.<\/p>\n<p>They will each face trial in the Victorian County Court, with an initial directions hearing listed for March.<\/p>\n<p>The other accused &#8211; Jake Crockett, Michael Nelson, Yan Zakharin and Michael Saarinen &#8211; will fight the allegations at a magistrates court committal hearing in May.<\/p>\n<p>Jaeden Johnson was the only one to admit offending, pleading guilty to charges of violent disorder, assault by kicking and committing an indictable offence while on bail.<\/p>\n<p>He will face a plea hearing in the County Court in August.<\/p>\n<p>Outside court, a member of the public confronted Sewell over his views and called him a racist.<\/p>\n<p>NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A neo-Nazi leader accused of leading an attack on an Aboriginalprotest site has flagged a possible plea but&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-470971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}