Bernard Quill: Radical Graffiti admin caught spraying Malabar Battery

A graphic designer who helps run one of the internet’s largest social media pages celebrating graffiti has been caught in the act spraying a historic site. He told a court he thought he was allowed to scrawl on the WWII bunker.

The Malabar Battery covered in graffiti. Quill is not thought to be responsible for any of the pictured artworks. Picture: Tim Frawley

• Jewish school’s plans to expand
• MP’s daughter flushed drugs down toilet

A man who was literally caught red handed spray painting a giant chicken leg on a historic WWII bunker in Malabar runs a viral social media page celebrating graffiti.

Bernard Quill, 31, was found with red paint on his hands and shirt along with 16 spray cans next to his poultry themed artwork, Waverley Local Court heard.

Representing himself in court, he said he thought he was allowed to scrawl on the historic bunker.

Quill was described as a “recidivist graffiti artist … who will continue to reoffend” by the pair of trail bike riding Maroubra station officers who stumbled upon him touching up the mural on New Year’s Eve.

The officers also found more than 3700 images and videos of graffiti on Quill’s phone and discovered that he was an administrator of the Facebook and Instagram pages Radical Graffiti which boast 28,000 and 21,000 followers respectively.

The series of fortifications are along the Malabar headland. Picture: Tim Frawley

However Quill, the holder of a degree in Fine Arts who represented himself in court, argued he believed that his mural, which bears the slogan Eat the Rich, was allowed.

“I was under the mistaken impression this was a tolerated place to paint,” Quill said.

Quill, of Earlwood, described rambling around Malabar Battery since his childhood, enjoying the ever changing display of aerosol art.

Magistrate Allison Hawkins said she believed the man was not “one of those young guys that goes around tagging buildings and train lines — the kind of graffiti that no one derives joy from”.

The area is often frequented by graffiti artists. Picture: Tim Frawley

“I accept you saw the bunker as a canvas. But it is not so,” she said.

Quill, who works as a freelance graphic artist and paid collector for charities including the Rural Fire Service, was fined a total of $300 on two graffiti related charges.

He also had a conviction recorded for possessing 0.2g of cannabis.

Radical Graffiti describes itself as a “page devoted to anarchist, anti-fascist and anti-capitalist graffiti, stickers and street art from around the world”.

Many of the “artworks” featured on the pages attack governments and the police.