A psychologist says far-right extremist Simon Hickey is a medium to high risk of committing a terrorism offence. But a judge has refused to order his ongoing detention.
An Australian neo-Nazi deemed a threat to national security walked free from a NSW prison after the state government failed in its bid to have his jail time extended under high-risk terrorism laws.
Electrician Simon Hickey, dubbed the “Nazi Sparky”, who idolises Christchurch massacre shooter Brenton Tarrant and once publicly called the Islamic prophet Muhammad a “pathetic pig f — ker”, was serving an 18-month jail sentence for manufacturing illegal road spikes when authorities applied to the NSW Supreme Court to keep him behind bars under a continuing detention order (CDO), due to fears he would act on his extreme views if released from custody.
However, Judge Natalie Adams refused to grant the application, despite a psychologist deeming Hickey a medium-high risk of committing a terrorism offence.
She found the state had not proved Hickey presented an unacceptable risk of committing a “serious terrorism offence” — the threshold required to issue a CDO.
Under the act, a serious terrorism offence includes training for terrorism acts, making documents likely to facilitate a terrorist act, planning terrorist attacks or being a member of a terrorist organisation.