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A magistrate has warned the public that posting menacing comments online will not be tolerated after a Melbourne man threatened to “put a bullet” in the head of the prime minister.
Magistrate Jacinta Studham said the courts were growing increasingly concerned with this type of online behaviour, and whether it’s the prime minister or anyone else at the receiving end of these posts, it cannot be tolerated.
A man has been fined for threatening to shoot Anthony Albanese. Credit: Getty
“There are people on the end of these comments,” Studham said.
“You’re entitled to your political views. What you’re not entitled to do is make threats ... in a public forum. The language was offensive, [and] in my view, menacing.”
Dandenong Magistrates’ Court heard that in February, 42-year-old Dale Byrne, from Officer, went onto social media platform X while under the influence of alcohol.
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He then tagged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a post and called him a homosexual c--- who needed “a bullet”.
Minutes later, at 4.57pm on February 7, he wrote: “You need a bullet, can do it in person c---.”
The posts were referred to the Australian Federal Police, and, at 6.30am on March 18, they raided Byrne’s home, seizing his iPhone.
At the police station, Byrne told officers he posted the comments because he didn’t agree with “some of the shit he [Albanese] does”.
“I don’t think he’s running the country real f---ing good,” he said. “I just don’t.”
He said people would likely think he was a “f---ing nutcase” but that he did not believe Albanese would ever have read the posts.
Byrne was later charged with, and pleaded guilty to, using a carriage service to menace.
Defence lawyer Dimitri Osianlis said the posts were juvenile and not intended to be taken seriously.
He also questioned whether “the most powerful man in Australia” would find it offensive but noted his client had a prior for a similar offence three years earlier.
Byrne, he said, was struggling with alcohol abuse at the time after buying a defective cattle truck. His current bail conditions have meant he has been unable to use social media for some time or watch YouTube videos.
“It’s not something that should be prosecuted ... as a hate crime,” Osianlis said.
“It was directed at a person with some of the greatest security available to them.”
Studham convicted and fined Byrne $2500.
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