The head of an Australian neo-Nazi group has been charged over the alleged assault of a Channel Nine security guard in Melbourne.
Thomas Sewell, who leads the far-right extremist group the National Socialist Network, was filmed attacking the security guard just hours before Channel Nine’s A Current Affair aired an episode involving the group.
Victoria police confirmed on Wednesday that Sewell and another man had been charged with an array of offences, including affray, recklessly causing injury and unlawful assault.
Sewell’s National Socialist Network was the group that made headlines earlier in the year for holding a neo-Nazi rally in Victoria’s Grampians National Park.
It comes as another neo-Nazi group, the Sonnenkrieg Division, became the first right-wing terrorist organization to be listed in Australia.
The listing means it will become illegal to be a member of the group, fund the group and in some circumstances associated with members of it.
Australian security agencies say there are no known Australians involved with the group, which is also banned in the UK.
