Protests begin against South Australian cop who laughed as he stoned a wombat to death

Outraged people have begun organising protests against a police officer who stoned a wombat to death after it emerged he would not be punished. 

Anger began building online as soon as the news broke that South Australian police community liaison officer Waylon Johncock would not be charged or face any discipline over his cruel killing of the helpless animal on October 3.

Two separate protest event pages for Adelaide quickly surfaced on Facebook, with concerned people from around the country as far away as Queensland and Newcastle in NSW offering to get involved by funding posters or contacting their local MPs.

Two protest events were organised on Facebook as soon as word got around that SA Police officer Waylon Johncock would not be punished for animal cruelty after stoning a wombat

‘There are 300+ members here. Who will protest Sunday 15th/ Monday 16th at midday? City police HQ,’ wrote one angry Facebook user on Saturday.  

One protest event is called ‘Justice for wombats’ while the other is ‘Protest for prosecution’.

Disturbing footage shot on the Eyre Peninsula shows the wombat waddling along the road as two men in a car follow, before Johncock steps out of the car wearing only shorts and shoes.

Ngarrindjeri elder Major Sumner (pictured) said Johncock’s stoning of the wombat was wrong 

He chases the animal before the man behind the wheel tells him to ‘get up close’.

Johncock picks up a large rock and viciously throws it at the wombat’s head as both men laugh.

The wombat starts running away as both men chase him.

‘You’ve got him, you’ve got him, hit him, hit him,’ the man in the car can be heard saying as Johncock picks up another rock.

‘Kill him!’

As the man behind the wheel speeds up to keep the headlights shining on him, Johncock gives a final blow causing it to topple over.

‘Yeah! You did it!’ the man in the car says.

‘First man I’ve ever seen kill a wombat on foot, bro.’

The terrible animal cruelty sparked outrage across the country.

More than 300,000 people signed a petition calling for him to be punished and Aboriginal elders disavowed his actions.   

The off-duty police officer laughing before throwing the rock at the helpless wombat’s head

Waylon Johncock (pictured) will not be charged with any crime or punished 

Ngarrindjeri elder Major Sumner said the officer’s stoning of the gentle animal was ‘wrong’.

‘We didn’t hunt like that. We still don’t hunt like that,’ the 71-year-old said.

Despite wide condemnation of Johncock’s actions, police internal affairs spent more than two months investigating while he stayed on the job.  

On Thursday, SA Police announced Johncock would not be charged or punished over the animal cruelty.

Commissioner Grant Stevens said Johncock was exercising traditional Aboriginal hunting rights and so hadn’t done anything wrong.

‘As a traditional Aboriginal man, [Johncock] has an appropriate permit to hunt wombats for food,’ he said in a statement.

‘Whilst distressing to many who viewed the video, it has been established [his] actions were not inconsistent with traditional hunting practices.

‘I have been advised that the wombat in the video was killed and eaten. The video shown on social media was part of a longer video that has not been released.’

Johncock was not given any internal discipline for his cruelty, but was advised about not making the evidence public, with police providing ‘managerial advice and counselling regarding the implications of social media’.

‘[He] is well regarded and respected by his colleagues, peers, supervisors, managers and the local community in which he serves,’ Commissioner Stevens said.

‘I have confidence in his abilities to perform his current role as a community constable.’