A nationalist activist who has been locked up since Australia Day on loitering charges will remain in jail for at least a month longer than expected.
Stephen Wells, 55, from Western Australia, was arrested alongside 15 other members of the National Socialist Network (NSN) while marching through Adelaide on January 26, charged with loitering and displaying a Nazi symbol – his NSN patch.
Three days later he was taken to Adelaide Remand Centre, after refusing to sign a bail agreement with conditions including a ban on entering the Adelaide CBD and associating with other members of the NSN, and put in solitary confinement.
Members of the National Socialist Network sing Waltzing Matilda as they march through the Adelaide CBD on Australia Day.
Police later made multiple arrests. pic.twitter.com/czRIgdWKsX
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) January 26, 2025
Mr Wells was also denied toiletries and refused food that fit his dietary requirements for his first week at the privately run prison, but is now being given 12 eggs a day, his wife told Noticer News.
Last week in the Adelaide Magistrates Court Mr Wells was told he would be given bail if he could provide a cash surety and his hearing was adjourned until today.
But despite his wife lodging $1,000 with the court today he was remanded in custody and had his next hearing pushed back from March 13 to April 17 after his bail conditions were not relaxed as expected, and he refused to sign.
Noticer News understands that Mr Wells believes that his bail conditions were made even worse, as they included new bans on leaving his home state and contacting anyone linked to the NSN, even those who are not political activists.
This means he will have spent almost three months in jail on minor charges by the time his case is heard in court.
Friends of the family have started a GiveSendGo to fund Mr Wells’ defence, as he has already lost his job, and his wife is a casual worker who cannot work full-time due to health issues and is now struggling to pay her bills and legal fees.
In his hearing last week Mr Wells said that he intended to fight the charges and asked the magistrate why he was being punished before going to trial and asked why the presumption of innocence was not being applied, ABC News reported.
“I’m supposed to have the presumption of innocence,” he said.
“My punishment shouldn’t happen until after the trial, my punishment instead is happening before the trial and the initial conditions that the prosecution wants to put on my bail are bound to be punishment much greater than the punishment available to the court to give me if I was found guilty, which is why I refused them in the first place.
“Just keep on punishing me before the trial, go ahead – presumption of innocence is dead.”
His lawyer Travis Moran told the court one of the reasons his client would not agree to the bail conditions was that they violated his implied right to political communication under the constitution.
Magistrate Benjamin Sale told Mr Moran he would “keep an open mind” but accused Mr Wells of “outbursts” in court.
“Mr Moran, you might want to convey to Mr Wells that whilst some of the things he’s saying are true, a punishment shouldn’t come before a finding of guilt, these sort of outbursts we just heard don’t necessarily speak in favour of me granting bail,” he said.
Header image: Left, Stephen Wells being arrested on January 26 (Nine News). Right, Stephen Wells (Facebook).
