Two months after his first bid for bail was rejected, neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell succeeded in his bid to be released from prison while awaiting trial on 25 offences, including allegedly assaulting several people at a sacred First Nations site.
Sewell walked from court on Thursday afternoon (while greeted by protesters chanting “Nazi scum off our street”), with the judge content that the “extremely onerous conditions” of his bail means he poses no risk to the community, while also noting that he has stable accommodation, living with his fiancess and two children.
Sewell is alleged to have joined a group in attacking the First Nations site on August 31, where he is personally accused of punching a member of Camp Sovereignty, kicking another and being part of a group that were discharing missiles at the camp.
The allegations span alleged violent behaviour that occurred earlier in the month of August, too, when Sewell is alleged to have lunged at a man and joined a group in kicking him in the head , when he took to the streets in Melbourne with a group of 200 waving “white man fight back” banners.
Meanwhile, separately in September, a magistrate handed Sewell an 18-month Community Corrections order after finding him guilty of intimidating a police officer and his wife.
On Thursday, Justice James Elliott said the prosecution had not demonstrated the unacceptable risk Sewell posed to the community. He granted bail on a $20,000 surety, noting Sewell will need to abide by the 18-month Communicty Corrections order listed above, be home by 9pm, and have no contact with any of his co accused or witnesses for the prosecution. He is also restricted from entering Melbourne’s BD for anything but legal or medical reasons.
The magistrate who’d previously rejected the bail bid, Magistrate Donna Bakos, had found Sewell was too much of a risk to community safety if he was released.
Prosecutors had declared Sewell should stay behind bars due to his “history of hate crimes and acts of violence” and described how he had told a group of men “let’s get ’em” as they heading towards the camp known to be sacred to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
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