How sovereign citizens threaten NSW police and courts

Former magistrate David Helipern receives on average five letters a week from sovereign citizens claiming laws don’t apply to them — which gives him serious fears about the risk they pose to police and courts.

EXCLUSIVE: Sovereign citizens are on the rise in NSW and some are targeting authorities with threats and demands of money, creating fear that this could escalate into violence.

David Helipern, a former magistrate of 22 years, revealed he alone receives on average five letters a week from sovereign citizens claiming that laws don’t apply to them.

He noted the emergence of the group was accelerated by Covid and warned authorities that such “gobbledygook” views should be taken seriously as some cases had the potential to escalate into violence.

“These are people who actually formed the view, that by engaging in a process of what I consider to be complete gobbledygook, they can separate themselves from any laws that they choose don’t apply to them,” Mr Helipern, Dean of Law at Southern Cross University, exclusively told The Sunday Telegraph.

“Once you take that leap, then anything goes — the gun laws don’t apply to you, the driving rules don’t apply to you, the drug laws don’t apply to you, the voting laws don’t apply to you, having to pay tax doesn’t apply.

Gareth and Stacey Train recorded and uploaded a video to YouTube after killing three people including two police officers. Picture: YouTube

“It’s a very slippery slope. That leads to the kind of extremist behaviour that we’re now seeing and I think the police and law enforcement agencies have recognised these beliefs can lead to dangerous conduct.”

Mr Helipern said the shooting deaths of six, including two Queensland police officers at a rural property in December 2022, was a chilling example of the same sort of language and doctrine being heard regularly in NSW courts.

“Talking to my colleagues and in particular Magistrate Mark Douglas, who’s been really documenting the amount that this has increased in the local court, there’s no doubt that … it’s rapidly increasing,” Mt Helipern said.

“I don’t think we can confuse this with a lack of intelligence. Just like many cults this is layered … and I think the risk is escalation.”

Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll at a memorial for constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, who were killed by the Trains.

Victim Constable Rachel McCrow. Picture: Facebook

The Sunday Telegraph has obtained a series of letters sent to police stations around NSW, addressed to “the living woman known as Karen Webb” who they say is “acting as police commissioner”.

The letters, with a gold crown in a red background, detail purported “numerous crimes” against “My Living Being” and demand millions of dollars, or pure gold and silver, in compensation.

Professor David Helipern, Dean of Law at Southern Cross University, says sovereign citizens should be taken seriously because their behaviour could escalate to violence.

In one letter addressed to the Commissioner, the writer warns that if she doesn’t comply with a bizarre list of demands there will be the following consequences.

“A public advertisement will then be placed stating your assets are open to lawful and legal claim. Any creditor (myself Included), would thus then be both lawfully empowered and legally entitled to seize any and/or all of your property, savings, shares, superannuation and garnishing of future earnings, up to the value of the Lien … currently at $10,543,220.60.”

Magistrates across NSW have also received pseudo legal demand letters and notices threatening to sue, however none have been officially stamped or sealed.

“These people are sometimes going around serving legal papers in police stations and suggesting that the police must go and arrest people in response,” an officer said.

A letter of demand sent to Police Commissioner Karen Webb from sovereign citizens.

The letters have demanded up to $10 million dollars.

In an internal briefing, the Australian Federal Police noted government and law enforcement officials have become targets of the sovereign citizen movement, with ASIO chief Mike Burgess noting Covid lockdowns and restrictions had amplified anger about the perceived attack on citizens’ rights.

“Some of the alleged violent acts at the … Old Parliament House protest are a case in point,” he said in a briefing on the national threat assessment.

“The individuals involved were driven by a diverse range of grievances, including anti-vaccination agendas, conspiracy theories and anti-government sovereign citizen beliefs.”

Mr Burgess noted behaviours in response to Covid lockdowns and vaccinations were “not specifically left or right wing” but rather “a cocktail of views, fears, frustrations and conspiracies”.

Associate Professor Tim DiMuzio from the University of Wollongong said the sovereign citizens movement appears to be a “modern delusion” spread largely by social media and most of those involved hold conspiratorial views that the government is directly out to get them or is somehow illegitimate.

“In my view, this is completely absurd as a society or nation-state requires rules, taxes and laws to function in any meaningful fashion. If everyone declared they were sovereign citizens and just made up their own ‘way of being in the world’ there would be chaos and anarchy,” he said.

Mr Helipern said more and more cases of sovereign citizens refusing to adhere to our laws were hitting the courts.

“There’s always been a smattering of those who claimed sovereign citizenship to one extent or another,” he said.

“The other end of the spectrum is the extremists. I think we’ve seen a real growth of that over the last since Covid.

“And I think the hard edge is harder than it’s ever been.”

SOME ‘FREE THINKERS’ (BUT NOT VIOLENT)

Natalie Reale

Owners of Village Fix cafe in Shellharbour, Anthony Reale, 41, and his wife Natalie Reale, 38, were charged in July 2021 after allegedly flouting the state’s public health orders.

Natalie documented their run-in with the law on Instagram, filming as she was taken to Lake Illawarra Police Station in the back of a police car.

Natalie Reale

Anthony Reale.

“I know my rights and there is nothing they can do,” she told the camera.

Both have pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to wear a mask.

They are still fighting the allegations, funded by a website that supports sovereign citizens.

Luke Daniel William Simpson

A sovereign citizen P-plater was kicked out of a courtroom twice after telling a magistrate she had “no jurisdiction” — despite electing to go to court himself.

Luke Daniel William Simpson outside Ballina Courthouse on March 16 after his licence appeal was dismissed.

Luke Daniel William Simpson had represented himself in Ballina Local Court in a bid to get his licence back after it was suspended for speeding.

Dave Graham

Dave “Guru” Graham, a self-confessed sovereign citizen was charged with intimidation after he allegedly made threatening calls to a staff member on Ben Fordham’s 2GB breakfast show.

He also believes that McDonald’s burgers are made of “baby meat”.

He is yet to enter pleas to the intimidation offences but has indicated he will fight them.

David Graham.

Originally published as How sovereign citizens threaten NSW police and courts