Man charged over gay hate page

NSW Police have charged a former member of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) with threatening a senior army officer and creating a Facebook page that outed and denigrated gay members of Australia’s armed forces.

An officer in the Australian Army received threatening emails in March 2010 which referred to his sexuality.

The Star Observer understands the victim of the threats to be an Iraq war veteran.

The ADF was made aware of the Facebook page in August 2010 and an ADF Investigative Services investigation was launched.

After the investigation stalled due to inadequate resources, the officer made a complaint to NSW Police.

Detectives from Surry Hills Local Area Command charged a 32-year-old former ADF member from Kareela in Sydney’s south with using a carriage service to threaten and using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.

He was granted conditional bail to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on June 3.

The Facebook page had been ‘friended’ by at least 80 men believed to be current and former ADF personnel. A further group of men who declined an invitation to ‘friend’ the page did not report it to superiors.

“Below in the quotations is a list of names of current serving members of the ADF who are homosexual. I feel I have to make you aware of their lifestyle decision,” the page read.

“It is your right to know who is biting the pillow. If you know any more bum bandits getting around in the ADF, shoot me an email.”

The page called homosexuality a “filthy lifestyle decision” and named five ADF personnel as gay.

A video posted to the page and on YouTube, made from screen shots from a video game and depicting the massacre of the patrons of a gay bar with the slogans “sodomy doesn’t pay” and “poofters … how do you kill yours?”, was created under the user name ‘exdigga’.