From the West Oz:

Racist conviction reveals plot
Ryan Pedler

The man who helped Australian Nationalist Movement leader Jack van Tongeren wage a racist terror campaign in the late 1980s was yesterday found guilty of teaming up with him again in 2004 to plot the firebombing of four Chinese restaurants.

A District Court jury deliberated for six hours after a one-week trial before convicting John Anthony Van Blitterswyk. He could be sentenced as soon as this morning.

The end of Van Blitterswyk ’s trial meant suppression orders on reporting van Tongeren’s case were lifted, allowing The West Australian to reveal that he made a dramatic confession to ordering the firebombings and was sentenced to time he had already spent in custody on the condition that he leave WA.

Van Tongeren, 59, and Van Blitterswyk, 55, recruited young ANM members Daniel Tyrone Klavins, Matthew Peter Billing and Ian “Monty” Johnson to firebomb the Man Lin restaurant in Karawara, the Ko-Sing in Lynwood, the Foo-Win in Southlands and a fourth Chinese restaurant to be chosen later.

The firebombings were to be conducted as a publicity stunt in mid-2004 in the days before van Tongeren released his book, The ANM Story, and van Tongeren and Van Blitterswyk planned to run for the Senate that year.

It can now be revealed that van Tongeren pleaded guilty to conspiring to firebomb the restaurants in November last year and was released by District Court Chief Judge Antoinette Kennedy, who took into account the two years and one month he had spent in custody awaiting trial.

Judge Kennedy imposed the sentence conditional on van Tongeren leaving WA within seven days and moving interstate to live with family. Van Tongeren’s change of plea came just three weeks after he broke down in court.

Van Tongeren and Van Blitterswyk’s convictions come 17 years after they were jailed in 1990 over an 18-month terror campaign by the ANM in the late 1980s that involved the firebombing of Chinese restaurants, racist posters and a string of burglaries.

Under strict rules governing the admissibility of evidence, details of the men ’s criminal histories were not revealed to the jury at Van Blitterswyk ’s trial.

It was also not revealed to the jury that Billing, an ANM recruit who skipped bail with van Tongeren and spent six weeks on the run, pleaded guilty to being involved in the firebombing conspiracy and conspiring to defeat the course of justice.

Billing was sentenced to 4 years jail, with eligibility for parole after 2 years.

Klavins, the ANM’s former security chief and founder of the racist White Devils group, received a suspended sentence of 2 years after making a confession.

Mr Johnson told the jury that he agreed to be involved but backed out soon after.