From the Hun:

Racist jailed for restaurant attack
By Rebecca Keenan
20dec05

AN avowed member of the white supremacist Australian Nationalist Movement (ANM) has been given a backdated 12-month jail sentence for his part in racial attacks on a Chinese restaurant and a Jewish food store.

Damon Paul Blaxall, 29, was on trial for being part of a group that defaced properties including a kosher food store and a Chinese restaurant with ANM stickers and racist graffiti last July.
Blaxall had pleaded guilty to daubing graffiti on a synagogue in Perth.

Magistrate Robert Black, sentencing Blaxall in Perth Magistrate’s Court, described the behaviour as abominable and shameful.

“Behaviour of that sort in any decent, civilised society is abominable,” Magistrate Black said.

“At the time you were involved with a group which apparently held certain views … and took part in a shameful act.”

Blaxall’s late guilty plea for the crimes indicated a lack of remorse, the magistrate said.

He said he took into account Blaxall’s pre-existing psychiatric condition.

Blaxall’s defence said his condition had led to low-self esteem and that he was in a vulnerable position when he was approached by the ANM.

Since he was charged, Blaxall said he had divorced himself from the group and its views and was now engaged with the Wilderness Society.

It was important that the sentencing act as a deterrent both generally and personally to Blaxall, Magistrate Black said.

The prosecution said in light of recent incidents, including the recent race-fuelled mob violence at Sydney’s southern beaches, it was necessary for the courts to provide deterrents.

Blaxall’s sentence was backdated to August 12, when he was taken into custody, and he will be eligible for parole.