Right-wing activist Thomas Sewell reportedly king-hit a guy outside Nine Network’s offices after telling a security officer to “dancing monkey.”
The head of the European Australian Movement, Sewell, 29, appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday after entering a not guilty plea to charges of assault, affray, and wilfully inflicting severe harm relating to the incident in March 2021.
They requested that some of Sewell’s followers who were watching the proceedings online turn on their cameras.
One used a picture of the Hitler Youth as the backdrop of another and said that asking someone to reveal their face was abusive since you wouldn’t ask a Muslim to take off their veil.
Sewell is accused of repeatedly striking a security officer in the head on March 1 in front of the Melbourne offices of Nine Network.
Just hours before Sewell’s program on neo-Nazi organisations was about to appear on A Current Affair, he stopped by the office with a cameraman to talk with senior executives.
He said that ACA had exposed his organization as a terrorist organization and that they had not contacted him to provide him the opportunity to respond.
Along with CCTV evidence of the altercation, a video of Sewell speaking to a camera inside the building was shown in court.
In the video, he is heard saying, “They call this investigative journalism, but when anybody dares probe these men, they hide like cowards in their offices.”
The security officer then approaches and covers the camera lens with his hand, telling the two men to move away.
He said before the court that he showed Sewell and the videographer a white line outside the office where they were allowed to record, but they shot their footage close to the door instead.
They ultimately retreated, and he thought the situation had subsided at that point.
However, he said that Sewell then began to play the Tones and I song Dance Monkey and informed the guard that “the monkey is dancing.”
“Oh the monkey is dancing, the dance monkey,” was said by both males. The security officer said, “I found it to be disrespectful.” on Tuesday.
I made the following hand motion after saying, “There’s no need for any racial insults,” adding, “I’m not a monkey, I don’t like the racial slurs, and I never mistreated the two of you.”
He said that Sewell then punched him, causing him to fall to the ground and smash his head on the concrete while Sewell kept punching him.
I was struck in the back of the neck while being gripped by my jacket collar and tried to get free from Thomas Sewell when I kept being attacked, the victim said.
After taking a few blows, he regained consciousness, was freed from Sewell, and then went back inside the structure.
The encounter left the guard traumatized and with many wounds, including bruises and swelling to his skull.
James McQuillan, Sewell’s attorney, said that his client had assaulted the guy in self-defense and was protecting his cameraman.
He said that after being commanded to “dance monkey,” the security guard lost his cool and grabbed the cameraman by the neck, which the guard disputed.
Mr. McQuillan also said that the guard was “imagining it or making it up” and that no music had been played, which the guard deemed to be “absolutely false.”
The hearing keeps on.
»Thomas Sewell denies hitting a Nine security officer«