Neighbours star and conspiracist leader Damien Richardson was recently found guilty of performing a salute indistinguishable from a Nazi salute in Victoria. The salute was performed at a gathering organised by the neo-fascist group the National Workers Alliance and attended by several neo-Nazis from the National Socialist Network, who actively engaged in friendly discussion with both Richardson and event organiser Matt Trihey.
In pre-sentencing hearings, we've particularly made note of two claims made by Richardson's defence: that he has suffered due to being associated publicly with Nazism, and that his salute had no underlying fascist motive – it was merely mocking the characterisation of him as having fascist leanings made in a recent article in The Age. In fact, Richardson's own grandfather fought the Nazis, so he couldn't possibly be sympathetic.
In much of the reporting on this matter, not much attention has been paid to what Richardson actually said.
Richardson's salute came in the context of describing an event he had attended in the Latrobe Valley.
The Age's reporting gives an idea of how this went:
