Australian actor Damien Richardson, who starred as Gary Canning in Neighbours, made a Nazi salute while giving a speech as he attended an event in Melbourne last year
Former Neighbours star Damien Richardson has been found guilty of performing a Nazi salute at an event.
The 56-year-old actor, who starred as Gary Canning in the soap opera from 2014 to 2020, made the gesture during a speech to the National Workers Alliance, a group that stands for “the preservation of Western culture and identity”, a court heard.
The event, held at a restaurant in Melbourne, was attended by members of the National Socialist Network (NSN), an Australian neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and far-right extremist group.
At some point during his speech, Richardson raised his right hand and said: “Am I gonna be fined now? I’m going to go jail for five years?”
Under laws in the state of Victoria, it is illegal to make a Nazi salute in public or display Nazi symbols in most scenarios. Richardson, who had fought the charge laid by Victoria Police, was found guilty of the offence on Friday.
Magistrate Justin Foster said the gesture Richardson performed “clearly looked like a Nazi salute”, ABC News reported. The magistrate ruled the act occurred in a public place and wasn’t part of a theatrical performance, which is one of the potential exemptions to the laws.
However, Mr Foster pointed out that the actor’s actions didn’t mean he was displaying any loyalty or affiliation to Adolf Hitler. He also found that the actor had not engaged in the same anti-Semitic views expressed by others at the event.
The magistrate said that by doing the gesture, Richardson was mocking The Age newspaper, which he claimed had likened him to Hitler in an article dating from August 2023. “Just prior to him giving the salute, the accused was complaining of his treatment by The Age newspaper,” the magistrate said.
“He was saying that The Age treated him badly and was essentially labelling him as a Nazi or like Hitler, to shut down what some might describe as extreme right-wing views. The salute that came immediately afterwards was in a mocking gesture, perhaps aimed at The Age, perhaps aimed at himself, I don’t know.
“It was trying to demonstrate, together with the words that follow, that he clearly wasn’t Adolf Hitler and that he’s not a Nazi.” Mr Foster said Richardson had shut down “elements of anti-Semitism in the room” and told people at the event that his grandfather fought the Nazis during WW2.
Despite this, Mr Foster said the gesture resembled a Nazi salute enough that he found Richardson guilty of the offence. As reported by The Age, Richardson will be sentenced on December 4.
The maximum penalty for the offence is a $23,000 (£11,360) fine and a 12-month jail term. Exemptions to the law include those who display Nazi symbols for academic, artistic, educational, scientific purposes and media reporting.
Source: Mirror
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