Secret neo-Nazi Telegram chat groups revealed after Adelaide courts slap gag orders on far right leaders

Their leaders have been banned from communicating after their arrests, but court orders didn’t shut up the far right group’s secret online haunts for long.

The Advertiser has uncovered a secret online Nazi group where accounts in the names of senior National Socialist Network (NSN) appear to be freely interacting despite an Adelaide court imposing bail conditions banning some of them from contacting key members of the group.

NSN leader Thomas Sewell and NSN figure Joel Davis were among 16 people charged with various offences at an Australia Day rally in Adelaide’s CBD, including allegedly displaying a Nazi symbol.

One of the bail conditions imposed by Magistrate Luke Davis on the 16, including on Sewell and Davis, was that they are “Banned from contacting or associating with, directly or indirectly, and by any means, with 30 named members of the NSN.”

NSN figure Joel Davis was among 16 people charged with various offences at an Australia Day rally in Adelaide’s CBD. Picture: Newswire

Subsequently the Davis and Sewell pages as well the regular NSN SA chat groups on Telegram effectively ceased operating.

A short-time later, for undisclosed reasons X suspended a raft of accounts associated with neo-Nazis from the NSN including Davis and Sewell.

However, The Advertiser has found a new Telegram page called “The Tardgrinder (New Era)” run by an account called Joel Davis – which links to his now closed down X page as well as Bitcoin payment details.

Messages on a Telegram forum from Joel Davis and Thomas Sewell, despite their bail conditions not allowing it. Picture: Supplied

One of the bail conditions imposed on both Sewell and Davis, included being banned from contacting or associating with, directly or indirectly, 30 named members of the NSN. Picture: Supplied

The Advertiser can also confirm that the account had previously posted messages in NSN chat groups under that name before the bail conditions.

Tardgrinder’s other group members include several pseudonyms of South Australia’s NSN group which The Advertiser previously interacted with as part of its five month undercover investigation.

Recent chats on the group show an account called Tom Sewell discussing Sam Newman’s February 4 podcast where he interviewed Sewell and another far-right figure Blair Cottrell.

The post is a response from Joel Davis about the recent interview and Sewell talks about “ … the importance of reaching the Footy Show audience”.

At the top of the chat is a pinned message from the Joel Davis account saying “You wont see me and Tom around for a while, until we get rid of these bail conditions.”