A man who issued a slur-laden death threat to the prime minister and his wife during a months-long social media tirade has been spared jail.
Alexander Phillip David Keating, 37, was on Tuesday convicted in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court of using social media platform X to menace, harass and offend.
He posted 45 menacing messages between February and April 2025, many of which called for violence against Muslims, queer people or politicians.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was one of the targets of the “abhorrent” threats, magistrate Theo Tsavdaridis said.
Keating posted a death threat directed at the prime minister and his wife which contained a graphic slur, the court was told.
The magistrate said the social media posts were a “serious affront” to the values of a civilised society.
“There is no place for hatred of this calibre in a country such as ours,” he said.
“The posts advocated sexual violence, killing and physical annihilation on the basis of race, religion and the colour of their skin.”
Keating had stopped taking medication for his mental health issues in the lead-up to writing the posts, Mr Tsavdaridis noted.
He was also self-medicating with cannabis on a daily basis at the time.
The 37-year-old had become frustrated with government policies and the rise of “wokeness” and “communism” from late 2024, according to the agreed facts.
He felt he was unable to have an opinion on political issues.
“One can express political opinions without resorting to calls for murder,” Mr Tsavdaridis said.
Because Keating only had six followers on X, his lawyer argued there was no evidence anyone had seen the posts to be offended by them.
But Mr Tsavdaridis said the Keating’s account was public so anyone using the site could theoretically have found the posts.
The magistrate stressed the need for deterrence of similar racially motivated crimes after the Bondi Beach terror attack in December.
“Any gains we have painstakingly made as a multicultural society over many years can very quickly be cast into oblivion,” he said.
“The law has always drawn a clear boundary between robust discourse and the incitement of violence.”
He ordered Keating to serve a two-year community corrections order and undergo constant mental health treatment.
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