Jail for 5G conspiracist who set fire to Mt Eliza 5G tower

A Mornington Peninsula man who set fire to a 5G tower and plotted to imprison the Premier in his backyard has learnt his fate.

A concreter who dug a backyard hole to imprison Premier Daniel Andrews “fell down a rabbit hole” of conspiracy theories when he set fire to a 5G tower, a court has heard.

Nathan Glover, 44, has gone cold turkey on drugs and the internet as he admitted they exacerbated his obsessions during the lockdown.

The Mt Eliza man has been jailed for 11 months after he pleaded guilty to setting a fire to a Telstra tower, causing $555,000 worth of damage.

The County Court heard he rode his electric scooter to the telco tower where he used wire cutters to get through the fence, climbed into an air conditioner vent and set a liquid alight, about 2.20am on October 7, 2021.

Nathan Glover has been jailed for 11 months.

CCTV captured the arson attack.

After Glover was caught on CCTV, police later raided his home and found a hole dug in the backyard measuring 1.5m by 6m, which Glover claimed was to imprison the Premier, a court was earlier told.

Glover was on bail at the time for using a carriage service to menace and harass over plans on Facebook to capture Mr Andrews and put him before a kangaroo court.

Seven jars of brown mushrooms, 17g of cannabis and a samurai sword were also found at the home of the concreter and music producer, who the court heard had created 44 albums.

A month before the fire, encrypted conversations on Telegram were held in the chat group ‘Hoodlums of Melbourne Special Ops’ with a user called ‘Nate Gluv’.

The damaged Telstra tower in Mt Eliza.

The fire caused $1 million in damage.

“I’m down for special ops only if I get to burn down something,” Nate Gluv wrote.

He was told the 5G towers would “make a nice fire”, and responded, “my thinking exactly”.

County Court judge Nola Karapanagiotidis said Glover’s crimes were motivated by thoughts that 5G towers were causing harm to the community – “one of the conspiracy theories you were engaged with during the lockdown”.

Her Honour said Glover had several months to “detox from the internet” and now stays away from drugs after realising they exacerbate his obsession with conspiracy theories.

Seven jars of brown mushrooms were found in a police raid on Nathan Glover’s home.

Police also uncovered two samurai swords.

But Glover still held some views that were not “mainstream”.

“You’re free and entitled to hold your views Mr Glover, but you are not entitled to break the law,” Her Honour said.

After his sentence, Glover will be released from jail on a community corrections order where he will undergo mental health and drug and alcohol treatment.

Were it not for his plea of guilty, Judge Karapanagiotidis said she would have imposed a three-year jail term.

Arson carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.