SA District Court jails white supremacists Jackson Trevor Pay and Duncan Robert Cromb for possessing terrorism materials
Two SA extremists caught with terrorism papers remain committed to their “abhorrent, disturbing and distasteful” ideals and still pose a danger to the public, a judge has ruled.
Police & Courts
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The best friend of Australia’s top white supremacist has been jailed for terrorism, just weeks after professing his support for “Hitler and Mussolini’s relatively bloodless revolutions”.
On Friday, the District Court said self-confessed neo-Nazi Jackson Trevor Pay and his fellow fascist, Duncan Robert Cromb, continued to pose too great a danger to the community.
Judge Joanne Tracey said neither man had renounced his “abhorrent, disturbing and distasteful” ideologies, meaning their risk of reoffending was high.
She said that meant not only would Cromb stay in custody – where he has been since the duo were caught with terrorism papers – but that Pay, who has been on bail, would join him.
Judge Tracey said last-minute psychological reports about Pay only increased her concern, given he described himself as the “best friend” of Victorian extremist Thomas Sewell.
“You continue to participate in online chat groups and recently said you support the ‘revolutions’ led by Hitler and Mussolini,” she said.
“You said that was because they were ‘relatively bloodless’, did not ‘rely on guerilla warfare’ and achieved their policies through fascism.
“Little I say will give each of you insight into how abhorrent and distressing your views are to the community generally … no sentence other than immediate imprisonment is appropriate.”
Pay, 23, and Cromb, 38, each pleaded guilty to possessing a document or record of information for terrorist acts.
Their papers outlined assassination and murder techniques along with “ideological, practical, technological and rhetorical solutions” for “patriot-minded individuals”.
They were among several members of the SA Men’s Health Club – a front for fascist activities in the state – arrested during a series of police raids in April 2021.
Fellow member Patrick Patmore was spared jail for his offending while the group’s alleged leader, Cameron Brodie-Hall, will stand trial in January next year.
Previously, the court has heard Cromb is a homeschooled conservative and lapsed Catholic friar who needs “an intimate relationship” to fully rehabilitate.
Pay, the court heard, was living with his grandmother until she learned of his offending – she then evicted him, leaving him homeless for a time.
In sentencing on Friday, Judge Tracey said Cromb’s social isolation and Pay’s “concrete thinking”, arising from Autism, had played roles in their radicalisation.
Groups like the Health Club and Sewell’s National Socialist Network, she said, “prey on the lonely, isolated, disillusioned and vulnerable”.
She noted both men insisted their lacked violent intent, and that the law did not allow for them to be punished for their political beliefs.
However, she said their lack of insight meant they still posed too great a risk to the community to warrant suspended or home detention sentences.
She jailed Pay for 25 months and 16 days, with a 14-month non-parole period, and Cromb for 2 ½ years with an 18-month non-parole period.
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