Jack Malady guilty of sending ‘hate mail’ to Penny Wong, Jim Chalmers and Michelle Rowland
A Darwin man’s campaign of online abuse against three Federal politicians has landed him before a judge in what his lawyer has called a ‘very unusual’ step against hate mail.
A Darwin man’s campaign of online abuse against three Federal politicians has landed him before a judge after he emailed them to “commit seppuku”.
On Thursday, Jack Malady appeared before the Darwin Local Court to plead guilty to using a carriage service to make threats, menace and harass Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland.
Judge Giles O’Brien-Hartcher heard the Darwin man used his personal email address to send five “menacing” and “harassing” emails to Ms Rowland on December 13 2023.
Less than a month later Malady sent an “offensive” email to Ms Wong, and days later he sent another threatening and intimidating email to the Australian treasurer on January 25.
The full details of the Darwin man’s threats to the high-profile politicians were not read aloud in court, however Mr O’Brien-Hatcher paused to ask “what is seppuku?”.
“I believe it is some form of Japanese self-infliction, a falling on your sword,” defence barrister Marty Aust answered.
Mr Aust said it was likely that the victims of Malady’s threats “didn’t even know what that meant”, adding that none of his intended targets saw the emails as they were dealt with by staffers and electorate office workers.
He said this was a “very unusual” matter, as typically using a carriage service to harass was in the context of domestic violence.
“In my 15 years … I haven’t seen somebody brought before this court for sending emails to Federal politicians — it’s a very rare, exceptional and novel situation,” Mr Aust said.
However Mr O’Brien-Hartcher countered, saying “politicians and public figures receive what we would describe as hate mail not infrequently”.
“Political discourse is fractured enough in democracies already, it should be conducted in a respectful and appropriate way — rather than using language and imagery of swords,” he said.
Mr Aust said at the time Malady was struggling with his undiagnosed and untreated Autism spectrum disorder, which meant he didn’t realise “his attempts at political free speech” had crossed a line.
“He thought this was a bombastic attempt at a caricature type scenario of thrash metal and satire,” Mr Aust said.
“He was blowing off steam in the circumstances of a significant mental health (situation), which included serious anxiety and depression.”
“It wasn’t his intent, because he doesn’t have the ability to empathise in that same way.”
“He now accepts it can be seen as offensive.”
Mr Aust said in the 15 months since, Malady was showing progress and had engaged with mental health workers and counsellors.
The Commonwealth prosecutor said she was seeking a conviction and a supervision order.
But Mr Aust called for no conviction to be recorded and to impose no further penalty, noting Malady had already spent two days in custody, been under “extremely strict” bail conditions for six months followed by a community corrections order for unrelated offending.
“Really there’s no need for ongoing supervision or otherwise when there’s already mechanisms in place … it really just seems like opening a walnut with a sledgehammer,” Mr Aust said.
Malady’s matter was adjourned to June 10 for sentencing.
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Originally published as Jack Malady guilty of sending ‘hate mail’ to Penny Wong, Jim Chalmers and Michelle Rowland
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