Neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell to stand trial after allegedly leading attack on Melbourne Indigenous camp | Victoria


Neo-Nazi figure Thomas Sewell has been committed to stand trial after allegedly leading an attack on an Indigenous protest site in Melbourne last year.

Sewell, 33, appeared into Melbourne magistrates court via video link on Thursday morning after being charged over the Camp Sovereignty incident.

It is alleged Sewell led the group that stormed the site after an anti-immigration protest in the Melbourne city centre in August.

The men, dressed in black, allegedly held down occupants of the Indigenous camp before kicking and punching them.

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Three people were injured, with one woman requiring staples in her scalp to close a wound, the court previously heard.

Sewell on Thursday formally pleaded not guilty to five charges relating to the incident, including violent disorder, affray and unlawful assault.

He was originally charged with more than 20 offences but prosecutors withdrew most of the charges during Thursday’s hearing.

Magistrate Donna Bakos found the evidence against Sewell was of a sufficient weight to support a conviction.

Sewell spoke briefly to confirm his plea of not guilty, before he was committed to stand trial in the Victorian county court.

Co-accused Nathan Bull also appeared in court, and pleaded not guilty to offences of violent disorder, affray, assault by kicking and failing to state his name or address.

Bakos also committed Bull to trial and extended the two men’s bail to a county court directions hearing date in April.

Three other men – Timothy Holger Lutze, Augustus Coolie Hartigan and Ryan Williams – will each contest their charges in a magistrates court committal hearing set down for May.

Blake Cathcart, who was also charged over the alleged campsite attack, has pleaded guilty to charges of violent disorder and assault with a weapon.

He is expected to face a plea hearing in the county court in August.

There are a further seven co-accused who were either contesting the charges at a committal hearing or at trial in the county court, while Jaeden Johnson pleaded guilty in February.



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