Dean Fletcher: Scott Morrison pool party organiser has jail term overturned
A protester arrested for trespassing on Scott Morrison’s private home has returned to court to appeal his “East Berlin”-style jail sentence.
An activist who threatened to “sh*t in the pool” at Scott Morrison’s personal address has had his prison sentence – likened by his lawyer to those imposed on dissidents in “East Berlin” – overturned.
Dean Fletcher, 33, was sentenced to four months behind bars for organising a failed political stunt at the Prime Minister’s home in Sydney’s south in January, having promoted his event “Watch the test match at Scott’s” on social media.
It came at the height of Australia’s bushfire crisis and was inspired by Mr Morrison’s decision to take a controversial holiday to Hawaii.
The Facebook event suggested more than 80 people would turn up, but only Fletcher, his friend Caitlin Cooper and the police who found them sitting on the front fence attended on January 3.
In July he was handed a maximum six-month jail term at Sutherland Local Court for a charge of inciting a criminal offence but was immediately granted bail to appeal.
That appeal was successful on Thursday when Judge Michael King quashed it and imposed a conviction without further punishment.
He also fined Fletcher $400 for trespassing, a charge stemming from when he walked across the back lawn to place a can of Little Fat Lamb in the recycling bin.
Outside court Fletcher’s lawyer Aaron Kernaghan described the original sentence as akin to those issued by the “East Berlin secret police”.
“It is a positive result that gives clear indication to magistrates not to overshoot the runway or get carried away simply because the Prime Minister is involved in a statement of facts,” he said.
He said his client had been nothing more than a “larrikin” and the result should remind everyone of the right to protest – in the right way.
“Ultimately my client is guilty of being an idiot but still being able to recycle,” Mr Kernaghan said.
In court Fletcher’s pro-bono barrister Leah Rowan said the sentence handed down on July 7 was “way over the top” and suggested her client would never have contemplated the stunt could land him in jail.
“The bottom line is this is stupidity at the highest order,” she said.
Ms Rowan said it was fortunate only “one other idiot” turned up on the day.
“He’s very lucky there weren’t other like-minded, feeble-minded people who didn’t take up the offer,” she said.
Judge King said it appeared the biggest crime Fletcher committed during the trespass might have been “killing a few ants in the garden” as he walked to the bin.
In the lead-up to the joke event, Fletcher posted a video on YouTube where he joked he would “sh*t” in Mr Morrison’s personal pool.
He later apologised to the Prime Minister following his first court appearance in March.
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