Far-right extremist Neil Erikson’s bizarre court defence

A right wing extremist accused of hurling homophobic slurs at churchgoers has tried to defend himself with laws from the time of Henry VIII.

Far-right extremist Neil Erikson told a magistrate to “Google it”.

A right wing extremist accused of storming into a gay-friendly church and abusing its elderly parishioners tried to defend himself using laws from the era of King Henry VIII.

Neil Erikson live-streamed a Mother’s Day service at Hawthorn’s Metropolitan Community Church in 2019 where he hurled homophobic abuse at the congregation, stating, “Youse aren’t in a house of God, you’re in a house of sodomy”.

The 36-year-old, who faces one charge of disturbing a meeting of religious worship, represented himself in court where he struggled to follow protocol and was pulled up for telling Magistrate Angela Bolger to “google” a link.

“It’s not in my experience appropriate to suggest to a presiding magistrate that they google something,” Ms Bolger said.

In attempting to argue against the charge, claiming the service wasn’t legally a religious one, Erikson pointed Ms Bolger to the UK Tolerance Act of 1650, where he was promptly told to stick to this century.

“So we’re applying the law, you say, that was brought into existence at the time of Henry VIII?” Ms Bolger asked.

“If you could move on Mr Erikson, let us not dwell in centuries past.”

One witness told of how the “horrible” 30-minute ordeal unfolded just two months after the live-streamed NZ mosque massacre, at a time when people of faith were “really concerned about safety in religious services”.

The church decided to go to police after learning footage of Erikson’s confrontation had been streamed online, outing some LGBTIQ parishioners who hadn’t yet come out to their families.

Footage played to the court shows how Erikson was invited into the service, which he soon interrupted when he stood up and said: “I heard that you guys marry sodomites, is that true?”

The congregation stood and corralled him into the hallway, with footage showing Erikson claiming he’d been assaulted and refusing to leave despite repeated requests.

When parishioners returned to their seats and continued the service, ignoring Erikson, he walked outside telling the camera he would wait for police and laughing that he had to face a court hearing the next day.

Matt Pepall, who was leading the service, said some “very vulnerable” members of the church, who had experienced gay bashings and social exclusion throughout their lives, had “started to shake” through the ordeal.

Church clerk Rolland Pike said attendees were “a bit frightened” and he told Erikson in cross-examination that “you insulted us”.

“We welcome people who want to join us — you didn’t want to join us,” he said.

When he was asked whether he objected to court documents being released to the media, Erikson replied, “Just to the Herald Sun”.

“I object to them cos they write scathing articles about myself,” he said.

Ms Bolger noted his objection, but confirmed “that’s not a proper objection in terms of the Open Courts Act”.

The hearing continues in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.