Melbourne extremist Neil Erikson jailed for church abuse

Far-right extremist Neil Erikson has been jailed again over an ugly scene inside a Melbourne church where he abused worshippers.

Far-right extremist Neil Erikson has been jailed after failing to overturn a conviction for abusing worshippers at a queer-friendly church in Melbourne.

On Sunday, May 12, 2019, the white supremacist attended the Metropolitan Community Church in Hawthorn with two women and a video camera.

Worshippers had gathered for a special Mother’s Day service when Erikson interrupted.

“I heard that you guys are marrying, ah, sodomites in this church. Is that true?” Erikson can be heard asking on a video he later uploaded to the internet.

“As in, do we believe in same-sex marriage? Yes,” a church parishioner said.

“Youse do, you call yourselves Christians? You know, ah, it’s against, ah, Christian theology to marry two homosexual sodomites.” Erikson said.

Reverend Susan Townsend then interjected, telling Erikson it was not the appropriate time to debate the church’s beliefs.

“Youse aren’t Christians,” Erikson fired back. “Youse are claiming to be Christians and you marry sodomites, f***ots.”

Neil Erikson has been jailed for a rant against same-sex marriage at a Melbourne church.

Ms Townsend then asked Erikson to leave, but he continued.

“P***ters,” he said, before being asked to leave again.

“I’m just saying, youse aren’t Christians if you support sodomy,” Erikson said.

“You are marrying homosexuals, lesbians and degenerates. Youse aren’t a Christian church. Don’t claim to be Christians.”

Parishioner Roland Pike then told Erikson to “let God be our judge”.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, you’re not following the Bible,” Erikson said. “You’re not following the Bible. OK. You’re marrying homosexuals in this church. That’s against, that’s against the Bible 100 per cent.”

But County Court Judge Peter Kidd said Erikson was wrong to express his views the way he did.

“Everyone is entitled to hold and express their views, even controversial ones,” he said.

“However, it should be clear to members of the public that there are consequences for stepping over the line and intruding in the lawful and peaceful religious gatherings of others.”

Judge Kidd said there was no debate about why Erikson went to the church.

“He was there to confront and inflame conflict, not to engage,” he said.

“His objective was not to participate with the congregation in worship, rather it was to wreck it. In this the appellant succeeded, as the video so clearly proves.

“The defence hypothesis of civil participation is patently absurd, and I reject it.”

He jailed the United Patriots Front founder for 40 days, 30 days less than the 70-day sentence he received from a magistrate in 2021.

Erikson last made headlines when he attended the Irish Times pub in Melbourne with fellow neo-Nazi Jimeone Roberts.

A confrontation broke out between Roberts and a bartender at the venue who spat in the extremist’s beer.

The bartender was fired and police are investigating whether the men demanded money from management to stop them from publishing negative reviews about the venue.

Far-right activist Neil Erikson.

In April last year, Erikson launched a verbal tirade at elected members after storming a council meeting and demanding to speak to them over a controversial presentation at a local school.

Erikson uploaded a video of himself abruptly confronting Kingston City councillors in Melbourne’s southeast as they tried to pose for a photo inside the council chambers.

The video shows Mr Erikson intimidating councillors by getting up close to their face and calling them “cowards”.

Mr Erikson claimed his actions were in response to a council youth worker reportedly labelling white, Christian males as “oppressors” during a presentation at Parkdale Secondary College last week.

The Herald Sun newspaper first revealed the youth worker told Year 11 boys to stand up if they were “white”, “male” and “Christian” and then told them they were responsible for being “privileged” and “oppressors”.

– With NCA NewsWire