By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A man has faced court for taking a knuckle-duster and flick-knife to a white-supremacist rally in Dandenong last year, a court has heard.
Martin Walker pleaded guilty at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 17 April to two counts of possessing weapons in a declared controlled-weapon zone.
Police had declared the zone in a central area of Dandenong during a planned protest by the True Blue Crew on 11 June, 2017, the court heard.
According to the group’s Facebook page, the rally was about taking a “stand against violent crime”, prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Gary van der Poel said.
The group’s social media pages espoused views against Islamicisation, asylum seekers and open borders, he told the court.
At 1.15pm on the day of the protest, Walker was pulled over in his car by police at a zone checkpoint on Princes Highway.
Under broader police search powers as part of the zone, Walker was scanned by a metal detector and given a pat-down search, the court heard.
During a search of his car, police found the weapons in a side-door pocket.
A defence lawyer told the court that Walker had forgotten the weapons were in his car at the time.
The father of four practised martial arts as a young man, but not for a significant time.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen noted Walker’s previous criminal history included a suspended sentence relating to a knife.
He was concerned that Walker had weapons while associating with a “politically organised” group that “basically stands for racism”.
Walker wasn’t well managing his significant psychiatric diagnosis by attending the protest with weapons, Mr Vandersteen said.
“I don’t understand why you’d go to something like this, that effectively creates disharmony in the community.”
Walker was convicted and placed on a 12-month good-behaviour bond with a condition that he continues his psychiatric treatment.
