Neil Erikson | |
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 Erikson in 2019 | |
| Born | 1985 (age 39–40) |
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Neil Erikson is an Australianfar-right extremist andneo-Nazi.[3][4][5][6]
Erikson gained attention after posting a video of himself verbally abusingIranian-born formerLabor senatorSam Dastyari in aMelbourne bar. During the verbal attack, Erikson called Dastyari a "terrorist" and a "little monkey" and told him to "go back home".[7][8] Erikson espouses theantisemitic canard andJewish conspiracy theory ofcultural Marxism.[9]
Erikson is one of the founders or leaders of the far-right neo-NaziUnited Patriots Front and theLads Society. He has been charged and convicted of multiple offences including assault, inciting contempt against Muslims, stalking, affray and riotous behaviour, making threats to prevent a clergyman discharging duties, and disturbing religious worship.[3][4][5][6]
In 2014, Erikson was convicted of stalking. Charges were laid after Erikson calledRabbi Dovid Gutnick, threatening and insulting him. He spoke ofcircumcisions,blood money and Jewishsidelocks, and told Gutnick he knew his location and was coming to get him unless he paid.Magistrate Donna Bakos said Erikson's calls were motivated by prejudice and found he had little remorse for his crime.[1]
In September 2017, Erikson (by then a member of theCooks Convicts) and UPF members Chris Shortis andBlair Cottrell were found guilty ofinciting contempt against Muslims after they made a video of a fakebeheading while protesting the building of amosque inBendigo.[10][2][11]
In 2018, Erikson was charged with making threats to prevent aclergyman discharging duties and disturbing religious worship, after he interrupted a church service at theGosford Anglican Church by marching into the church dressed asJesus Christ, holding a whip.[12] As of March 2019[update], Erikson had outstanding warrants and was wanted byNSW Police regarding an outstanding non-custodialarrest warrant related to the offence.[13]
In 2018, Erikson attended a rally inPerth run byLiberal MPsAndrew Hastie andIan Goodenough in support ofWhite South African farmers wanting to immigrate owing toSouth African farm attacks, a cause drumming up sympathy on the far-right, based partly on theWhite genocide conspiracy theory.[14]
Also in 2018, Erikson attended aGold Coast "recruitment event" for theLiberal National Party of Queensland, for which he claims his flights were paid by someone else.[15]
In 2019, Erikson was involved in an altercation betweenQueensland SenatorFraser Anning and a 17-year-old boy. Erikson was recorded restraining the 17-year-old after the boy crushed an egg on the back of Anning's head while he was speaking at a political meeting in the Melbourne suburb ofMoorabbin. The teenager egged Anning in response to comments made by the senator about theChristchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, claiming thatMuslim immigration had led to the attacks.[16] Erikson and a number of other UPF members tackled the boy to the ground, putting him in a headlock and repeatedly kicking and punching him.[17]
On 11 May 2021, Erikson was sentenced to one month jail at the Melbourne Magistrates Court, after refusing a community correction order and de-radicalisation program. Erikson lodged an appeal against the sentence in the County Court, which was scheduled for August 2021.[18]
On 30 July 2021, Erikson was sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates Court to 10 weeks jail for hurling homophobic abuse in a church in Hawthorn in May 2019. He was granted bail.[19]
