Reformed neo-Nazi linked to Romper Stomper movie warns Melbourne youth to steer clear

A reformed neo-Nazi whose crimes were dramatised in the hit movie Romper Stomper has revealed he is “disgusted” by his past actions, after coming to his senses in prison.

Ex neo-Nazi Andrew Kirby pictured in Gympie, Queensland. Picture: Brad Fleet

A reformed neo-Nazi whose crimes were dramatised in the Russell Crowe movie Romper Stomper has warned the young men joining the latest crop of neo-Nazi groups that they are wasting their lives following the “frauds” leading the gangs.

Andrew Martin Kirby, 49, told the Herald Sun he was now deeply ashamed of his involvement in two notorious Melbourne skinhead gangs, The Guard and Brothers in Arms in the late ’80s and ’90s.

Kirby will later this month be released from parole in Queensland, three years after he walked from prison.

“I’ll be off an order for the first time since 1986; this will be the first time I am a free man,” he said from his home in Gympie.

“I’m ashamed of myself, ashamed and disgusted, and I have to live with the guilt and remorse about who I was,” he said.

Andrew Martin Kirby, now 49, pictured during his years as a neo-Nazi prisoner.

Kirby has been sickened to see a new wave of neo-Nazi’s in Melbourne.

Kirby said he was sickened to see another wave of neo-Nazis active in Melbourne, and said the leaders were preying on impressionable young followers.

This week, a young mum and her toddler were accosted by a man making a “heil Hitler” salute in Caulfield, prompting Jewish leaders to warn some members of the community felt increasingly under siege from the threat of extremist groups.

Also this week the Herald Sun revealed a group of neo-Nazis led by notorious white supremacist Tom Sewell publicly celebrated Adolf Hitler’s birthday at a beer hall in the Docklands, 32 years to the day since Kirby’s former mate, Dane Sweetman, murdered a man with an axe at a celebration on the same day in 1990.

Sweetman, now 51, was released from prison in 2005.

Kirby says he turned to neo-Nazi gangs for a sense of belonging. Picture: Brad Fleet

Kirby now states neo-Nazi leaders are ‘frauds’. Picture: Brad Fleet

Kirby said Neo-Nazism was built on a lie and it’s leadership were “frauds” for pretending they could change Australia.

“We all know Australia is a multicultural community,” he said.

“You cannot take that back.

“What are they fighting against?”

Kirby grew up in a boys’ home, was bullied mercilessly during his childhood and said Sweetman’s gang gave him a sense of belonging, until he realised he was little more than a pawn.

He said those who had joined recently-formed gangs to get out, otherwise they would be dealing with the repercussions for life.

“Once the system has its hooks into you, that’s it, you can’t shake that stigma,” he said.

He said he finally realised the errors of his ways while sitting alone in a prison cell.

“When you’re sitting in solitary confinement, getting your face smashed in because of those ideas, it’s a great awakening,” he said.

“I had to break myself down as a human being, it really took me a while.”

“You think, ‘do I want to keep living my life like that?’”

Kirby said the biggest regret of his life was betraying his late grandfather, who was one of the Rats of Tobruk.

“I loved my grandparents,” he said.

“My grandfather fought against the Nazis and saw his friends die … I would love to just go back and apologise to him for the heartache I would have caused him,” he said.