Terror plotter Phillip Galea’s courtroom outburst after guilty verdict
A Melbourne terror plotter who created a how-to manual in the hopes of sparking thousands of other attacks has made a sensational courtroom outburst, yelling out to the jury that found him guilty.
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A man found guilty of preparing a terror attack in Melbourne and creating a handbook for wannabe attackers yelled “you weren’t given all the facts” to the jury after the verdict was delivered.
After a seven-week trial, Phillip Galea, 35, was found guilty of planning and preparing a terror attack, after he spoke to an associate about targeting a left-wing rally with chemical bombs.
The Braybrook man had also looked up the addresses of the union movement’s Trades Hall headquarters, the Melbourne Resistance Centre and the city’s anarchist club.
Galea was also found guilty of creating a document called the “Patriot’s Cookbook”, described as a terrorist how-to-guide by prosecutors.
“You weren’t given all the facts,” the convicted terror plotter called out as the jury members were being taken from the courtroom today.
The trial heard Galea was motivated by a fear that left-wing ideology and Muslims posed “an existential threat to patriotic Australians”.
Prosecutor Richard Maidment, QC, said at the time of his arrest Mr Galea was preparing a manual called the Patriot’s Cookbook he hoped would spark thousands of other terror acts.
“He did so with the intention and belief that when he distributed that book … it would lead to a number of violent acts in the nature of terrorist acts,” Mr Maidment said.
“At one stage he said to a colleague that it would lead to thousands upon thousands of terrorist acts,” he said.
A 2017 hearing saw Mr Galea accused of creating a document titled Introduction to the Fund, which called on fanatics to source guns and other weapons.
“Even a compound bow will do,” he wrote.
Prosecutors alleged police had found evidence that Mr Galea made an order for potassium nitrate, which can be used to make explosives.
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Galea — who was associated with the far-right groups True Blue Crew, the United Patriots Front and Reclaim Australia — insisted the first version of the guide was meant to be a Monty Python-esque satire.
He was arrested in August 2016 at his Melbourne home.
Arson and explosives experts raided Galea’s home in November 2015 and seized five cattle prods and 362.1 grams of mercury.
Computer equipment was also seized, and it’s alleged Galea researched homemade bombs, ballistic armour and guns.
Galea described himself as a self-taught electrical engineer who was using the mercury to replicate an engine originally created by 19th century English scientist Michael Faraday.
A Victorian Supreme Court jury began their deliberations on Monday afternoon and returned the guilty verdicts today.