A homeless man who repeatedly shared his extremist, racist and anti-Muslim views on Facebook, culminating in an all caps post pointing to an imminent attack on a mosque packed for Friday prayer has been jailed for 10 months in Newcastle District Court.
Cormac Patrick Rothsey, who has spent nearly nine-and-half-months behind bars since his dramatic arrest in Beaumont Street, Hamilton in September, will be released in early July and placed on a recognizance release order, which will restrict and monitor his use of social media.
Rothsey had pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend in relation to 10 days of increasingly violent anti-Islamic rhetoric espoused on two of his private Facebook pages that culminated in posts that were deemed such a significant threat that Joint Counter Terrorism police launched a major operation to locate and arrest the homeless 44-year-old.
"Australia Cormac Rothsey mosque raid soon," Rothsey wrote on Facebook at 2.53pm on September 5, a Thursday. "Make ya movie (sic). "No turning back." At 3.54pm that day, Rothsey wrote: "F---in' hell. Let's do it."
That followed a number of posts expressing admiration for Christchurch terrorist and mass murderer Brenton Tarrant and threatening to kill New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
One post stated: "my aim is to go to Friday prayer in a packed mosque. No turning back when called to prayer".
Barrister Benjamin Bickford, for Rothsey, told Judge Tim Gartelmann, SC, on Friday that, due to the time he'd already served, the 44-year-old should be released on a recognizance release order with supervision.
"Mr Rothsey has to pay a price for these deeply hurtful, offensive and inflammatory comments," Mr Bickford said.
"But he has spent nine-and-a-half months in jail and has good prospects of rehabilitation, assuming he can be supervised in the community."
Mr Bickford said despite Rothsey's time behind bars, during which he twice applied for bail and was deemed too great a risk to be released, the offending posts did not necessarily warrant a jail term.
He pointed to a range of factors, including the lack of evidence that the posts were accessed by a large audience or that any members of the Muslim community saw them and were made to feel harassed and said there was nothing to suggest Rothsey was in possession of any weapons that were referred to in the posts.
"There is no evidence that he was the leader or involved in some sort of far-right extremist group at the time," Mr Bickford said. "In fact, the evidence suggests perhaps the opposite; he was acting alone and spending a lot of his time alone."
It had previously been submitted and accepted that - despite the escalating posts and the reference to an imminent raid on a mosque - there was no evidence Rothsey was taking any active steps to carry out an attack.
Instead, Mr Bickford said Rothsey was lashing out on social media because he claimed he had been repeatedly assaulted by two men who he identified as being Muslim.
A psychologist's report found that at the time of the Facebook posts, Rothsey "felt angry, was in a state of confusion and was overwhelmed by bad thoughts of revenge."
"He was clearly fixated and driven by a dislike of Muslim people," the psychologist's report said.
And while he still maintained some adverse feelings towards Muslims, Mr Bickford said Rothsey was remorseful and genuinely motivated to change his behaviour.
Crown prosecutor Sam Duggan said a term of imprisonment was warranted and should be imposed but did not oppose Rothsey being placed on a recognizance release order, which is similar to a good behaviour bond.
Judge Gartelmann said Rothsey's motive was "religious intolerance and chauvinism", which he described as "abhorrent to civilised society".
Ultimately, Judge Gartelmann sentenced Rothsey to 10 months in jail and ordered that once released on July 4 he be placed on a 14-month recognizance release order.
The order is designed to supervise Rothsey and assist with his rehabilitation and mental health issues but includes a condition that he notify community corrections within 24 hours of obtaining any electronic device with access to the internet or any social media account.
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