A neo-Nazi leader has posted shocking footage of his violent attack on a Channel Nine security guard hours before the network was due to air a report about his extremist far-right group.
National Socialist Network leader Thomas Sewell and his lackey filmed themselves arriving at the TV station’s office in Melbourne hoping to confront A Current Affair staff ahead of the segment running on Monday night.
Their request was denied and Sewell unleashes into an extraordinary tirade on camera slamming the staff as cowards and manipulative before a security guard emerges and orders the pair to leave.
‘Sorry, you cannot film in the building,’ the security guard, who is black, tells the man filming, who refuses to comply with instructions.
The security guard is seen telling the man filming to stop filming and leave. Thomas Sewell (right) watches on
As the pair are escorted from the building, the man filming gets up close and personal to the security guard and taunts him.
‘Dance monkey, dance!’ the man is heard yelling.
The encounter quickly escalates into violence as he orders the guard to not ‘f**king touch me’ before Sewell unleashes a brutal attack on the security guard.
Shocked bystanders watch on as Sewell punches the security guard several times, who staggers backwards and is knocked to the ground with a jab to the face.
The neo-Nazi then holds the security guard to the ground as bystanders yell at him to stop and get off the man, who was just doing his job.
The security guard is able to return to his feet but appeared to be in a bad way as he staggered several metres before Sewell approaches again.
The two men square off before the ugly melee ends when several bystanders intervene to pull them apart.
‘You put your hands on me, back off,’ Sewell says to the guard.
‘Back off, you can’t put your hands on people. You f**king with the wrong person.’
Sewell’s shirt was torn in the melee.
Shocked bystanders watch on as Sewell punches the security guard several times, who falls over backwards and is knocked to the ground
The neo-Nazi then holds the security guard to the ground as bystanders yell at him to stop and get off the man, who was just doing his job
The Channel Nine security guard was taken to hospital in an ambulance and CCTV of the incident given to Victoria Police.
‘We are providing support to the member of our staff who was attacked. Nine is committed to providing a safe working environment for all our people,’ a Nine statement read.
Later on Monday night, A Current Affair reported on the federal government’s plans to declare the UK-based Sonnenkrieg Division as a ‘terrorist organisation’.
It’s understood the far-right extremist group doesn’t have any direct links to Australia but security agencies fear it could inspire home-grown extremists.
‘They have a presence that we’re particularly worried about in the UK but their reach goes into the minds of young people and Australians here,’ Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told A Current Affair
‘People are on the internet, they have the ability to join these chat groups to hear this disinformation, these lies and this sick ideology.’
The Channel Nine security guard was taken to hospital in an ambulance and CCTV of the incident given to Victoria Police
Sewell performs a Nazi salute, the official greeting of Adolf Hitler’s murderous regime, in footage played on A Current Affair
He added ASIO will consider whether other organisations overseas or closer to home need to be listed.
The warning comes after families were left fearing for their safety on the weekend before Australia Day in January when a group of far-right activists descended on the town of Halls Gap, performing the Nazi salute and screaming ‘white power’.
Nate Hart was hiking in the Grampians National Park in western Victoria with a friend on Saturday when he passed about 30 young men gathered in a cave singing ‘Waltzing Matilda’.
Mr Hart realised most of the men were wearing black shirts with the Celtic Cross – a symbol commonly used by white supremacists.
Families were left fearing for their safety on the weekend before Australia Day in January when a group of far-right activists descended on the town of Halls Gap, performing the Nazi salute and screaming ‘white power’
As he walked away, the men ‘aggressively yelled ‘power of the white man!’,’ Mr Hart wrote on Facebook.
‘It was clear we were in the presence of a group of actual fascists, indeed Nazis, out for a training camp and bonding exercise,’ he said.
‘Young blokes coming together over their shared hatred of others.’
Other hikers and locals in the nearby town of Halls Gap saw the same group marching through the town on Sunday and Monday, The Age reported.
They gathered around a barbecue area – some shirtless and showing Nazi tattoos – and drank coffee outside a cafe run by a local Indian family.
‘They looked like Nazis from a Hitler movie,’ a cafe owner said. ‘And they were.’