Herald Sun (Australia), Aug. 22, 2002
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/
A white supremacist who stabbed a reformed skinhead for saying he could not be a Nazi because he had an Irish name was yesterday jailed for at least 18 months.
Patrick John O’Sullivan, 31, did a jig in the dock of the County Court before being led to jail.
Judge Bill White rejected a plea for leniency from O’Sullivan’s lawyer that his client’s provocative tattoos would put him at risk of attack while in custody.
Among his hate-inspired tattoos are “Nazi” on his knuckles and “rahowa” (racial holy war) on his torso.
In sentencing him to a maximum of two years and nine months in jail, Judge White told O’Sullivan he was a coward who had attacked a man who had challenged his strong racist beliefs at a North Fitzroy house-warming.
The victim, a former skinhead, had asked O’Sullivan how he could consider himself a Nazi when he had an Irish name and no German blood.
He said O’Sullivan had either punched or headbutted his victim before stabbing him up to three times in the abdomen during the party in May 1999. The victim suffered a 5cm-deep wound.
Judge White said it was ironic that O’Sullivan had asked the jury who heard the case to decide its verdict without bias or prejudice when he held such prejudice himself.
O’Sullivan claims to be the Victorian leader of the World Church of the Creator and says he has been ordained as a reverend by the church’s US affiliate.
He claims to have 100 followers, but throughout his trial last week his girlfriend was his only supporter in court.
Judge White told O’Sullivan, who was found guilty of intentionally causing serious injury and intentionally causing injury, that most Australians would treat his views with contempt.