{"id":38397,"date":"2026-06-25T10:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/38397\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T10:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:51:08","slug":"illawarra-man-pleads-guilty-to-offensive-online-comment-about-anthony-albanese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/38397\/","title":{"rendered":"Illawarra man pleads guilty to offensive online comment about Anthony Albanese"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">An Illawarra man has pleaded guilty to making an offensive online statement towards Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, but his lawyer said the response by police was &#8220;an extreme overreaction to a stupid comment&#8221;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Wayne Pasterfield entered the guilty plea on Thursday morning on behalf of his client Grant Edmond Ellis to one count of using a carriage service to menace, harass, or cause offence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Ellis, 63, sat in the foyer of Port Kembla Local Court while the matter was considered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">He was arrested at his Koonawarra home by Australian Federal Police (AFP) in June, two months after they began investigating a report of a social media post allegedly containing a violent comment.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Man wearing beanie being escorted by AFP officers\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/180f0e4fdd4a9f2a2f08e3a3262f8b21.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Grant Edmond Ellis was arrested at his Koonawarra home.\u00a0 (Supplied: AFP)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The AFP said officers seized an electronic device and ammunition during a subsequent search of the property.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Speaking outside the court, Mr Pasterfield described his client&#8217;s offence as &#8220;a throwaway line&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Man told purple folder outside brick court house\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/a976e02c535b293384ae9f1e78553483.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Wayne Pasterfield told the court his client wanted to plead guilty.\u00a0 (ABC Illawarra: Brooke Chandler)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;It was to a post basically telling us what we already know, that kids can&#8217;t afford houses etcetera,&#8221; he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s just a bloke frustrated with the way the country&#8217;s being run [and] made a stupid comment online which I&#8217;m sure happens every day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The AFP announced a National Security Investigation team last October to target groups and individuals causing high levels of harm to Australia&#8217;s cohesion, including targeting federal parliamentarians.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Earlier this month, the prime minister pointed to concerns about online commentary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;Every member of parliament should be able to go about their business free from any threats or any intimidation,&#8221; he said at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The matter will return to court in August.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Illawarra man has pleaded guilty to making an offensive online statement towards Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[483,22,21,31752,1109,14352,31753,31751,489,3438],"class_list":["post-38397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-anthony-albanese","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-comment","tag-court","tag-illawarra","tag-menace","tag-online","tag-prime-minister","tag-wollongong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}