A protester who held up a poster of alleged double cop killer Dezi Freeman at an anti-immigration rally has been charged.
The demonstrator sparked nationwide outrage when he was photographed holding up the ‘offensive’ placard at a March for Australia rally in Adelaide‘s Rundle Park on Sunday.
The poster consisted of a photo of the fugitive with the words ‘free man’ underneath – and it can now be revealed it sparked a police investigation.
South Australian detectives have spent the last two days trying to locate the Adelaide protester with the placard.
Following extensive inquiries, a Golden Grove man, 39, attended the Grenfell Street police station in the CBD on Tuesday.
He was charged with displaying offensive material in a public place.
The man was granted bail to appear in Adelaide Magistrates Court on October 28.
Freeman, 56, remains on the run, a week after he allegedly shot two police officers and wounded another while police were at his property in Victoria’s High Country to execute a warrant.
An Adelaide man spotted holding a poster of fugitive Dezi Freeman at a March for Australia rally on Sunday has been charged
The protester was charged with displaying offensive material in a public place
It comes after Acting Police Commissioner Linda Williams conceded that she was ‘taken aback’ by the poster which she branded as ‘offensive’ and ‘disgraceful’.
‘I found it quite disturbing,’ she told reporters on Monday.
‘I think that that would have disturbed any right-minded person, including our members who saw the sign yesterday.
‘It would have been a very hard thing for the families of those police officers who had their lives taken to have seen that. I can only imagine the disappointment they must have felt in seeing that.’
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas and Victorian Police Minister Anthony Carbines also condemned the protester’s actions.
‘People will make their assessments, but clearly this is the sort of behaviour that we see from those who attended the rallies,’ Carbines said.
‘It’s despicable and disgusting ,and it’s very hard to find the words for it really.’
Thousands of Aussies took to the streets on Sunday to take part in anti-immigration rallies across nation, which included a 15,000-strong crowd in Adelaide.
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Anti-immigration protester who held up alleged double cop killer’s poster is CHARGED by cops