Victoria’s most bizarre court moments of 2023
From an alleged Nazi salute outside court to a mum booted for breastfeeding, these are the weirdest cases and moments in Victorian courts last year.
Police & Courts
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While courts usually feel like intimidating, serious places they also have their fair share of outlandish moments.
Among the bizarre headlines were a convicted killer collapsing as he learnt his fate, a man suing a hospital for $1bn after witnessing his wife’s pregnancy and an Irishman with a different type of “Kinder Surprise”.
Here are the strangest cases and incidents of 2023.
Nazi salute
Neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant may be Victoria’s quickest recidivist after he allegedly performed a Hitler salute on the steps of the County Court.
The prominent white supremacist exclaimed “heil Hitler” before laughing and raising his arm into a salute moments after he was spared extra jail time for bashing bushwalkers in regional Victoria.
“Oh ho nearly did it ha ha, that’s illegal now isn’t it,” he said.
The act was outlawed in Victoria weeks earlier and Hersant became the first person charged with the offence which carries a maximum fine of more than $23,000 or 12 months’ jail.
Hersant returned to court last month, telling reporters: “The salute? I heil Hitler every day.”
What a magistrate makes of that remains to be seen.
Nixon allegedly knees cop
Embattled former AFL agent Ricky Nixon is no stranger to controversy.
Nixon had multiple court appearances last year but it was not just his alleged behaviour outside court that landed him in hot water.
While facing the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court for assault, Nixon was accused of kneeing the police officer who charged him as he exited the courtroom.
Magistrate Malcolm Thomas said it was up to the prosecution to charge Nixon with another offence though no charges were ever laid.
Nixon returns to court later this year as he fights allegations he threw an Australia Post package and assaulted a man in Port Melbourne.
Breastfeeding mum
It was the polite request from a County Court judge to a woman in the public gallery that made headlines across the country.
“Madam, you will not be permitted to breastfeed a baby in court. I’m sorry. I will have to ask you to leave. It will be a distraction for the jury at the very least. Thank you,” Judge Mark Gamble said in March, while presiding over the much-anticipated trial of soon-to-be convicted pedophile Malka Leifer.
What soon followed was talkback radio, comments in parliamentary question time and front page headlines as the “horrified” woman at the centre of the saga spoke out calling for better education.
Judge Gamble had told the mother she was not permitted to nurse her baby inside his courtroom as it would be a “distraction” for the jury.
She left the room in tears, feeling humiliated and degraded.
As a public furore erupted, Judge Gamble kept quiet.
But months later, he talked to the Judicial Commission, explaining the reason for his decision.
What no-one knew then, but has since come to light, is that the jury had just heard evidence in closed court from one of Leifer’s students describing a sexual assault around breastfeeding.
Leifer, who at the time had a baby, had breastfed in front of her student before she then had the girl sit on a couch where she was indecently assaulted.
The reason no-one knew this crucial information is that evidence of sexual assault complainants are heard in a confined courtroom, where only the judge and jury, the accused and lawyers are permitted to remain.
The Judicial Commission dismissed three complaints about Judge Gamble.
But perhaps the jury is still out in the court of public opinion.
C-section lawsuit
While women usually bear the brunt of pregnancy, spare a thought for Anil Koppula.
The new father tried to sue the Royal Women’s Hospital for $1bn claiming he developed a “psychotic illness” after witnessing his wife’s C-section.
His wife had just given birth to a healthy baby at Sandringham hospital in January 2018 following a successful caesarean section.
But her horrified husband alleged that after he was “encouraged” and “permitted” by the hospital staff to observe the C-section, he was traumatised upon seeing his wife’s internal organs and blood.
“The experience caused the onset of a psychotic illness,” he said.
He lodged a statement of claim in the Supreme Court years later, alleging the hospital breached a duty of care it owed to him and was liable to pay him damages.
Mr Koppula, who represented himself, assessed his damages for psychological injury at $1bn, claiming “his illness” led to the breakdown of his marriage.
The Royal Women’s Hospital admitted it owed to him a duty of care but denied it had breached it, also rejecting his claim that he suffered any injury.
Finding in its favour, Justice James Gorton threw out the lawsuit, calling it an “abuse of process”.
Kinder surprise
Kinder Surprises are a favourite treat among children around the world.
But Australian Federal Police were in for a different type of surprise when they arrested Irishman Sam Mooney at Melbourne Airport.
The Dublin native admitted he had “something up (his) arse” after he smuggled nearly 100g of cocaine inside Kinder Surprise capsules inserted in his rectum.
Mooney, 28, who claimed he was holidaying in Australia, was passed onto police after a swab of his luggage was positive for the Colombian marching powder.
After he was transferred to hospital, he excreted five yellow capsules containing the drugs, telling officers there was “one more inside” which followed soon after.
The County Court heard Mooney had racked up a drug debt of €13,000 – about $21,000 – but had been offered a “way out” by smuggling cocaine into Australia.
Judge John Carmody encouraged Mooney to get clean as he jailed him for more than three years.
“He’s made frank admissions, perhaps that’s the Irish way,” he said.
Killer collapses
Paul Charlton fainted and fell backwards in the court dock when a Supreme Court jury announced it had found him guilty of murdering his ex-partner Joanne Howell.
“Guilty”, the foreman said, as Charlton opened his mouth in a gasp.
He clenched his left hand and second later, fell to his left with a thud to the ground as Joanne’s family cried in the gallery.
He remained lying on the floor in the dock as the jury was removed from the court.
Charlton was attended to by court staff and a woman rushed to his side, as Justice James Dudley Elliott confirmed an ambulance had been called.
Around 20 minutes later, a dishevelled-looking Charlton, with his blue tie pulled off and crisp white shirt unbuttoned, struggled to rise from the floor of the dock with the assistance of two paramedics.
Holding his right hand to his upper left chest and breathing heavily, he was placed in a wheelchair by medical staff, who had been working on him from behind the walls of the dock for about 10 minutes.
Justice Elliott declared Charlton was now in custody, but allowed the murderer to be taken away for treatment at St Vincent’s Hospital.
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