The American was also in touch with a fascist Australian couple who courted each other online with talk of "swastika cupcakes" and "jokes" about killing non-white people. Justin Beulah was a Young Liberal university student at the time of the 2017 messages. He and his now wife Lisa Sandford, a former One Nation member, then joined a far-right attempt to branch stack the NSW Young Nationals last year. The couple say they have now abandoned the "toxic" white supremacy movement and urge others to do the same. 'Kind and caring' It was, the photographers' website said, "a complete princess wedding".

Ms Sandford and Mr Beulah exchanged vows in February in a Presbyterian church before posing for pictures in front of Parliament House in Canberra. "[The] first thing that struck Lisa about Justin was his kind and caring nature," the photographers' blog continued. "For Justin, Lisa is quite literally the most considerate, kind and loving person he has met." The couple's caring natures were not on display on Discord. Using memes and violent language, they degraded other ethnicities in a chat called Vibrant Diversity. Their messages in the invite-only forum were among hundreds of thousands published by US media collective Unicorn Riot this year. "They described it as an elite group," Unicorn Riot's Chris Schiano said. "There is a fair amount of influential people from the alt-right in it."

Mr Beulah posted more than 1400 messages as "Brad Small", including a lynching cartoon and propaganda from Australian neo-Nazi group Antipodean Resistance. Justin Beulah posted under a pseudonym the picture on the right, his head cropped out. But his suit, shirt and pocket square matched those seen in another picture on his Facebook. "My phone has numbers of the majority of the Aussie Alt Right," he wrote. Then a 21-year-old commerce student at the University of Canberra, and a member of its Liberal Society executive, he complained he was in a class with "three Jews". He disobeyed directions online to protect his identity, posting a picture of a shirt, suit and pocket square combination that also appeared on his Facebook.

An 'ultra-far right Nazi' "Msnatsocialist" was a Catholic and a One Nation member who loved baking and hated feminism. At 25, Ms Sandford was also an "ultra far right Nazi" who worshipped Hitler and wanted a greater role for women in white supremacy politics. Like her then boyfriend, Ms Sandford repeatedly used violent language directed toward minorities over a period of months. "Race mixing is vile," she said. She wished Aboriginal Australians had been wiped out, wore a necklace in the shape of the Black Sun hate symbol and referred to Facebook groups she helped create such as Woman's Nationalist Club Australia.

Despite their political affiliations (party spokespeople said they were no longer members of One Nation or the Liberals), Ms Sandord and Mr Beulah last year joined a group of far-right figures attempting to seize control of the NSW Young Nationals. The ABC revealed in October the group pushed at the May 2018 state conference for policy motions such as restricting immigration to "culturally compatible" peoples. Suspicious of a branch stack, the party eventually banned Ms Sandford, Mr Beulah and 20 others. The Nationals' NSW director Ross Cadell said the party had tightened its membership processes after an internal investigation exposed "abhorrent" material about the group. Lisa Sandford, in the white skirt, was elected to the executive of the NSW Young Nationals before being banned from the party. Credit:White Rose Society

"We didn't think we could be more shocked, but then the next batch would come in," he said, warning "parasitic" right-wing extremists would keep looking for mainstream political hosts. Andrew Jakubowicz, a UTS sociologist, said online racism was normalised as part of a "competitive practice" to post more shocking content. "It raises the level of incivility," he said. "It raises the likelihood of intergroup violence quite dramatically." The Kline connection Ms Sandford liked to boast of her extremist connections.

In 2017 she said she belonged to three Melbourne meet-up groups and bought tickets to the racist conference DingoCon. She spoke of drinking beers with Blair Cottrell, who led the extremist United Patriots Front. Blair Cottrell (left) denies receiving money from US white supremacist Elliott Kline (right), contrary to claims Mr Kline made online. Credit:Eddie Jim/Southern Poverty Law Centre When Mr Cottrell faced court in Melbourne in May 2017, charged with racial vilification over a mock Islamic beheading, she decided to support him in person. "Do you want me to live stream the trial?" Ms Sandford asked on Discord. Seconds later she received a response from one of the most influential figures in the US white supremacist scene at the time.

"YES PLEASE," Eli Mosley replied. Mosley was a pseudonym of Elliott Kline, a military veteran who falsely claimed to have served in Iraq, the New York Times reported. Also using the pseudonym Judenjager - German for Jew hunter - he was a key organiser of the Charlottesville rally where an anti-extremist protester was run over and killed. After requesting a live-stream of the Cottrell trial, Mr Kline said "I sent him some monies and I hope it goes well." Later he warned "you dingo faggots better get the f--k over there to help him". The term "dingo" on the forum referred to Australian members.

Mr Kline's pledge of support came after another on YouTube. "Blair you have the full support of the American Alt Right," he commented on a video by Mr Cottrell before the trial. "I'll spend the week [sic] bullyciding my dingo friends to show if they aren't planning to do so already, and I'm sending you some donations after work today." But Mr Cottrell said he did not know anyone called Eli Mosley or Elliott Kline. "I've never received any money from anyone in America," he said. Mr Beulah said he had known Mr Kline and did not believe he sent any money to Australia.

'Every day is hate' In a small Canberra unit on an autumn evening, he and his wife said they wanted to talk about how they entered and then left "the movement". Mr Beulah said he was radicalised online around 2014 after spending time on the site 4chan, which he visited to discuss computer games and anime. He went on to record a far-right podcast and moderated a Discord server devoted to white supremacist Richard Spencer. "Every hour of every day is hate," he recalled.

Ms Sandford said her radicalisation began in anti-feminist circles. "I used a lot of those comments to fit in," she said of her Discord abuse. "They were the only people that really made me feel welcome. They accepted my views and I didn't feel vilified." The couple say they exaggerated their connections to people like Mr Cottrell. And while they used to believe white people were superior, talk of violence against other races was "a joke". Slowly their world view began to crumble, they said, as they met more people from different ethnic backgrounds and grappled with the violence at Charlottesville.

"Charlottesville was a come-to-Jesus moment for me," Ms Sandford says. "I was like, why am I here?" However, she posted derogatory messages about the Charlottesville victim in the days after and boasted about "our guys" prank calling an ABC radio interviewer discussing the rally. Loading Mr Beulah said his deradicalisation was a gradual process also beginning around the time of the rally. The couple claim they went along with the Young Nationals push to meet new people and while Ms Sandford was elected to the executive, they abstained from the immigration vote. They said they were following orders from Sydney man Clifford Jennings, who posted on Discord as ARA1788.

Mr Jennings said he no longer operated that account, which had been used by multiple people, and did not recall making racist statements associated with it. "I do not agree with the politics of hate," he said. Today, the couple say they are "absolutely disgusted" with their online actions. Ms Sandford urged isolated young people in white nationalism to join churches or sporting clubs instead. "Please talk to your family," she said. It is unclear whether the couple have in fact fully disavowed their racist beliefs.