A 22-year-old man mimicked the actions of the gunmen behind the Bondi terror attack on the footbridge they shot from, before unleashing an anti-Jewish rant on several bystanders and leaving frightened children in tears.
Zayne McMillan pretended to fire upon people from the Campbell Parade bridge on a busy Saturday evening in January, a court heard as the man was due to be sentenced.
John Maddison Tower Local Court heard the tirade included the Indigenous man shouting, “I’m a Koori, this is my land, f— the jews.” McMillan was on parole for multiple domestic violence offences at the time.
Agreed facts tendered to court say that about 7pm on January 31, McMillan and another man were standing on the footbridge on which Naveed and Sajid Akram stood seven weeks earlier and allegedly opened fire on a crowd celebrating Hanukkah, killing 15 people. It was Australia’s deadliest terror attack.
There was a “moderate amount of pedestrian traffic in the area, as there typically is at that time during summer on a Saturday evening”, the facts state.
McMillan motioned with his hands as if holding a long-arm firearm, shouting, “F— the jews. I’m a Koori, I can do what I like. I’m Aboriginal – this is my land.” His friend took photos as he did so.
About five metres away, a man was standing with his family, including two children, when he locked eyes with McMillan.
McMillan shouted, “What the f— are you looking at?” One of the children ran towards her father and started crying. The man was terrified for his family’s safety, the facts state.
Several other bystanders stepped in to tell the pair to leave, but McMillan responded with the same slur.
As McMillan threatened the man by standing close to his face, swearing at him and threatening to bash him, his terrified children clung to their father and pleaded: “Let’s go daddy – I don’t want to be here.”
The victim hailed down a marked police car as McMillan jumped over a wall on Campbell Parade and fled.
Minutes later, the facts state, McMillan and his friend were riding e-bikes next to Waverley Oval as a man and his 11-year-old son walked towards a synagogue.
The facts state that “both were clearly Jewish” due to their religious headwear.
The man heard McMillan continually shout “f—ing jews”. McMillan then put his bike down and took his shirt off, before getting back on his bike and riding around the oval, continuing his rant. The victim asked what he was “so angry about” and whether someone upset him, to which McMillan’s friend responded: “He’s just a dumb drunk c—.”
Police later arrested and charged McMillan after confirming his identity in footage they obtained. He was refused bail.
McMillan pleaded guilty to three counts of behaving in an offensive manner in public and two counts of intimidation.
At an earlier court appearance, McMillan’s lawyer Glen Cremer, said he had shown remorse and should be released from custody to address his alcohol and drug issues.
He accepted the facts were “fairly extreme” and clearly offensive, insensitive and immature but said there was a possibility his client might not be jailed.
“It’s not planned antisemitic … terror activity,” Cremer told the court.
“It’s drunken stupidity.”
But the police prosecutor said a jail term was inevitable, given McMillan’s criminal history and the “pretty horrendous” facts.
The judge agreed that a term of imprisonment appeared likely and declined to hear the bail application.
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