{"id":701990,"date":"2026-05-29T10:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/701990\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T10:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:41:09","slug":"man-jailed-over-racially-motivated-attack-against-queenslands-biloela-family-biloela-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/701990\/","title":{"rendered":"Man jailed over \u2018racially motivated attack\u2019 against Queensland\u2019s Biloela family | Biloela family"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Biloela man has been jailed for a targeted \u201cracially motivated attack\u201d against members of Queensland\u2019s Murugappan (Nadesalingam) family, who made national headlines<\/a> for their years-long fight against deportation while detained on Christmas Island.<\/p>\n

Jessie Newton, 40, also pleaded guilty to assaulting Priya Nadesalingam and Nades Murugappan, and a string of other offences, at Rockhampton magistrates court this week.<\/p>\n

The incident began when Newton drew swastikas on trees in Lions Park at about 10am on 31 January.<\/p>\n

He then crossed the road to approach the food truck operated by the Tamil family<\/a>, and immediately became aggressive towards them. The court heard he told Nadesalingam that she \u201cdidn\u2019t belong here\u201d and that \u201cshe needed to go back to her own country\u201d.<\/p>\n

Murugappan intervened to protect his wife. Newton then stole a jerry can full of petrol and used it to threaten him, and threatened to insert it into his anus.<\/p>\n

Finally he picked up several bird feathers attached to a dried carcass and threw them through the service window of the food truck, striking Nadesalingam in the face. He then fled the scene.<\/p>\n

He was arrested two days later.<\/p>\n

Police prosecutor Alana Murray said police were able to identify Newton because the Tamil couple filmed the interaction.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

When questioned by police he claimed he was conducting \u201chealth and safety checks\u201d during his interaction with the couple, Murray said. He told police he drew the swastikas in order to draw attention to trees he claimed council were killing, she said.<\/p>\n

Newton has a certificate qualification in workplace health and safety.<\/p>\n

Magistrate Peter Kuskie said Newton was a \u201cdespicable coward\u201d and a \u201ccomplete pest\u201d, with a lengthy criminal history dating back to 2002, including a hoax bomb threat, several public nuisance offences, assaults and numerous drug offences.<\/p>\n

He said Newton had \u201csought to target in a racially motivated attack two well-known much loved, and much respected members of the Biloela community, they were going about their business constructively operating their food truck\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour behaviour must have been absolutely horrifying and offensive and demoralising to your victims,\u201d Kuskie said.<\/p>\n

Defence lawyer James Fisher said Newton was not a racist or a neo-Nazi and had been affected by substances during his offending.<\/p>\n

He said his client was politically engaged, and often brought local issues to the attention of his state MP, arguing that he had used iconography \u201csynonymous with the worst genocide in human history, to try to draw attention to what he says was an environmental issue \u2026 the removal of those trees from the park\u201d.<\/p>\n

Kuskie said he rejected Newton\u2019s explanation of his behaviour that it was motivated by \u201ceccentric political views\u201d which he had expressed poorly, but accepted his defence\u2019s lawyer\u2019s submission that he had a substance abuse problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are an absolute disgrace. You are a disgrace to yourself, and you are a disgrace to this country, and the only person who doesn\u2019t belong in Australia \u2013 with views like yours \u2013 is you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Newton pleaded guilty to charges of displaying, distributing, or publishing a prohibited symbol, common assault serious vilification, or hate crime, stealing, obstructing policy, and threatening violence as a result of the incident.<\/p>\n

He also admitted 10 other offences committed in two additional incidents, including painting the swastika at a national park store-room which he broke into, vandalising the Gladstone senior citizen centre and Gladstone square, and possessing methamphetamine and cannabis.<\/p>\n

Fisher said his client had asked him to apologise to the Tamil family and was ashamed of his behaviour.<\/p>\n

The story of Nadesalingam and Murugappan and their children Kopika and Tharnicaa has been told in books<\/a>, a play<\/a> and documentaries. The Tamil refugees were detained in early morning raid in 2018<\/a> at their Biloela home over a visa that had expired by a single day. They subsequently spent four years in detention including years on Christmas Island<\/a> where they stayed for two years, before being granted permanent residency<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n

Newton was sentenced to 18 months prison, including pre-sentence custody. He will be eligible for parole on 1 August 2026, and convictions will be recorded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Biloela man has been jailed for a targeted \u201cracially motivated attack\u201d against members of Queensland\u2019s Murugappan (Nadesalingam)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-701990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701990","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=701990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}