Senator acknowledges in supporter’s video that he recognised immediately the boy was a minor

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Fraser Anning has admitted on video he knew the person who egged him was a child when he struck him twice in retaliation, saying the boy “deserved it”.

Victorian police are continuing to investigate the incident “in its entirety”, including the actions of the Queensland senator and the five crowd members involved in tackling and restraining the boy.

Two of the men have been identified as known far-right activists who filmed their racist abuse of the former senator Sam Dastyari.

Numerous videos of the incident and the aftermath – by media and attendees – have been posted online.

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In one video filmed by a supporter of Anning and posted online, the senator acknowledged he recognised immediately that the boy was a minor.

“Because he’s only a kid I only slapped him with an open hand but you know, he deserved that,” Anning said. “He needs to get a few manners.”

Anning had been telling a reporter the Christchurch terrorist attack was an “unfortunate” tragedy “but it’s going to be eventually accepted or expected that these sort of things happen when people are getting attacked in their own…” when the boy cracked the egg on his head and called him a racist.

Anning turned around and hit him, saying “don’t do you do that”, and appeared to call the boy a “fucking mongrel”.

Ricky Turner, a member of a far-right group, is seen grabbing the boy around the neck to wrestle him to the ground, where he put him in a chokehold and refused to let go, telling the boy that with his actions: “You’ve thrown an egg at every one one of us.”

Footage shows Neil Erikson, a convicted racial vilifier, came in some moments after the boy was tackled and held his head to the ground, shouting at journalists who suggested the group let him up.

There is a current New South Wales police arrest warrant out for Erikson over involvement in an allegedly filmed invasion of the Gosford Anglican church.

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Erikson was convicted in 2017, alongside fellow far-right extremists including Blair Cottrell, for inciting contempt and ridicule of Muslims by making a video of themselves beheading a dummy with a toy sword to protest against the construction of a mosque in Bendigo.

In 2018 Erikson was found guilty of contempt after posting a video about Dastyari against previous court orders. Erikson was sued by Toll for wearing the company’s uniform while he abused Dastyari.

Turner also appears in the Dastyari video, and is separately facing charges of assault, affray and riot over an incident at a 2017 Melbourne event staged by the far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.

Both have long associations with several small far-right groups. A left-wing activist and researcher of the far right in Australia, Andy Fleming, has documented the history of the two men, as well as several other far-right figures seen at Anning’s event.

Erikson and Turner told the Mail the footage had been taken out of context to “make them look bad”.

Shortly after the incident Erikson tweeted an AAP photograph of the five men holding the boy down, with the comment “catching crocs is what we do”.

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Anning’s spokesman, Boston White, said the senator did not have any arrangement or involvement with Erikson, Turner or other men involved in the boy’s restraint.

He declined to answer questions about Anning’s admission that he knew the boy was a minor, or whether he had been interviewed by police.

“Senator Anning doesn’t condone violence of any kind, whether it is being hit in the head from behind or otherwise,” White said.

The same clip which featured Anning also interviewed other members of the crowd for their reactions, including Cottrell who said he was “just enjoying the spectacle” and blamed the media for “creating extremists” and sowing division.

Tom Sewell, another far-right associate of Erikson and Cottrell, linked to the Lads Society group which is reportedly connected to a number of white nationalists, said it was important to have Anning re-elected so there was “some sort of representative of the European community here in Australia”.

In a video selfie following the Christchurch attack but prior to Anning’s event, Erikson said he didn’t condone the perpetrator’s behaviour, “but this is karma”.

Erikson and Cottrell were permanently banned from Twitter and Facebook in the days following the Christchurch attack. Cottrell has said he was also banned from Instagram and PayPal.