A Victoria Police officer who was suspended with pay after allegedly performed Nazi salutes and saying “heil Hitler” at the police academy will not face criminal charges.
The female sergeant, 65, was suspended after being accused of making the banned gesture at the Victoria Police Academy twice in one week in October last year.
Chief Commissioner Shane Patton apologised to Victoria’s Jewish community at the time, said the alleged incidents were “shameful” and would “exacerbate grief and pain” related to the anniversary of October 7, and vowed to investigate.
But on Wednesday Victoria Police revealed the criminal investigation into the allegations had been finalised, and that the officer would not be charged.
“Late last year detectives from Professional Standards Command compiled a brief of evidence in relation to two charges of public performance of a Nazi gesture,” police said.
“As per the standard process when any charges are considered against a police officer, the brief of evidence was sent to the Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP) for assessment. We have since received advice from OPP that, based on the circumstances, there is no reasonable prospect of conviction.
“This ends the criminal component of the investigation, and the sergeant will now be subject to an internal discipline investigation. The police officer continues to be suspended while the internal discipline investigation process proceeds.”
Just weeks after the officer was suspended, Australian nationalist Jacob Hersant was sentenced to one months’ jail for making the hand gesture outside court, after becoming the first the first person to be found guilty of violating Victoria’s controversial laws banning the political salute.
Mr Hersant, the leader of right-wing activist group the National Socialist Network (NSN), was released on appeal bail and will challenge his conviction on the grounds that the laws, which have been criticised by free speech advocates, violate his implied right to political expression under the constitution.
Fellow National Socialist Network members Nathan Bull and Michael Nelson are also facing multiple “offensive behaviour” charges in Victoria for allegedly making the salute before it was banned.
Mr Bull was also charged with allegedly making a Nazi salute at a showing of the movie Zone of Interest in Melbourne in March.
In November a man was charged with making the gesture outside a police station in Frankston, while another man was told by police he would be charged over an alleged salute at Flemington racecourse.
In NSW in October three men were month fined $1,100, $1,00 and $500 for performing the salutes outside the Sydney Jewish Museum on October 13 last year, and a month later two out of three soccer fans convicted in July for making the salute in October 2022 had their guilty verdicts overturned on appeal.
All three had argued the gesture was symbol of Croatian national pride and not linked to Nazi Germany.
A Middle Eastern restaurant owner was charged under the same laws for holding a sign which replaced the Star of David on the Israeli flag with a swastika and said “stop Nazi Israel” at a pro-Palestine protest in Sydney in October.
In November a 20-year-old man was charged with alleged making a Nazi salute at a rally for so-called transgender rights in Newtown, Sydney, and in December Argentinian man Norberto Trimestra, 68, was charged after allegedly making the salutes in a pub in Sydney’s CBD.
Header image: Victoria Police Academy (Victoria Police)
