{"id":4323,"date":"2026-05-04T05:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T05:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/4323\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T05:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T05:41:14","slug":"alleged-anzac-day-hecklers-face-court-over-2025-shrine-of-remembrance-booing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/4323\/","title":{"rendered":"Alleged Anzac Day hecklers face court over 2025 Shrine of Remembrance booing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Witnesses have told a Melbourne court they were “disgusted” when a group of men interrupted last year’s Anzac Day Dawn Service by booing and heckling.<\/p>\n

Jacob Hersant, Nathan Bull, Michael Nelson and Ian Lomax have been charged with behaving in an offensive manner, and two counts of breaching the Shrine of Remembrance Regulations Act.<\/p>\n

The men are fighting the charges in a contested hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.<\/p>\n

Mr Hersant, Mr Bull and Mr Nelson are well-known white supremacists, while Mr Lomax, a Ballarat dentist, was suspended from practising after allegations surfaced linking him to neo-Nazi rallies.<\/p>\n

The court heard the men booed and yelled racist slogans during parts of the service on April 25, 2025.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

The disruptions started while elder Mark Brown was delivering a Welcome to Country, prosecutor Ryan Mallia said.<\/p>\n

“The yelling and booing was loud enough to be heard across the entire crowd,” he said.<\/p>\n

One woman testified that she was near Mr Nelson and Mr Lomax, who were booing.<\/p>\n

“I was really upset and disgusted. So many people were asking to show respect at this really important ceremony for so many Australians,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"ANZAC<\/p>\n

Political leaders and the RSL condemned the 2025 Anzac Day disruptions. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)<\/p>\n

Footage played to the court showed members of the crowd urging the pair to be quiet and to “show respect”, while Mr Nelson could be seen smiling when an ex-serviceman dragged him away.<\/p>\n

Another man gave evidence that the ceremony was interrupted by “a continual disruptive barrage”.<\/p>\n

“People came for the Anzac Service. They didn’t come to hear him,” the man said of one of the hecklers.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath, political leaders and the RSL condemned the actions of the disruptors.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jacob Hersant seen being escorted from the 2025 Anzac Day dawn service by police. (Getty Images: Asanka Ratnayake)<\/p>\n

Mr Hersant, Mr Bull and Mr Nelson are representing themselves in the court hearing.<\/p>\n

Today, Mr Hersant said he would be relying on “the implied right of political communication” as part of his legal defence.<\/p>\n

Mr Bull added: “Political communication is just that. It can’t be offensive”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nathan Bull is also facing separate charges over an alleged attack on Camp Sovereignty. (ABC News: Guido Salazar)<\/p>\n

Mr Lomax’s lawyer, Sam Norton, said none of the video footage in the case would depict his client “saying or doing anything that could amount to the offences to which he is charged”.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors were expected to call up to 12 witnesses for the case, which has been set down for five days.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Ian Lomax, a Ballarat dentist, was suspended from practising after allegations surfaced linking him to neo-Nazi rallies. (Supplied: Internet Archive)<\/p>\n

In a separate matter, Mr Hersant, Mr Bull and Mr Nelson are facing charges over an alleged attack on Camp Sovereignty, an Indigenous site in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Mr Hersant became the first Victorian to be found guilty of making a Nazi salute in public. He was jailed for a month after losing an appeal against the conviction.<\/p>\n

Mr Hersant and fellow neo-Nazi leader Thomas Sewell were also convicted for violent disorder after attacking hikers in a state park in 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Witnesses have told a Melbourne court they were “disgusted” when a group of men interrupted last year’s Anzac…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5609,1114,1123,1533,5579,5570,260,5575,5611,5608,5607,5612,5610],"class_list":{"0":"post-4323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-melbourne","8":"tag-5609","9":"tag-anzac-day","10":"tag-booing","11":"tag-heckling","12":"tag-ian-lomax","13":"tag-jacob-hersant","14":"tag-melbourne","15":"tag-michael-nelson","16":"tag-nathan-bull","17":"tag-nazis","18":"tag-neo-nazi","19":"tag-racist","20":"tag-shrine-of-remembrance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323","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=4323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}