A truckie who tweeted to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that “you need a bullet, I can do it in person” has been convicted and fined.
Dale Byrne, 42, of Officer, pleaded guilty after a sentence indication at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 4 September to using a carriage service in a manner that a reasonable person would regard as menacing.
In February, Byrne responded to a post on social-media platform X which referred to Albanese and new federal hate-speech laws aiming to “turn down the heat” on social media.
Byrne tagged the PM’s official X account @AlboMP in his public retort, stating to Albanese: “F*** off I’ll tell you you’re a homosexual c***…”
“You need a bullet I can do it in person c***.”
Australian Federal Police raided Byrne’s home on 18 March, arresting him and seizing his phone.
In a police interview, Byrne explained that he’d directed the tweets at Albanese because “I just don’t agree with some of the s*** he does”.
“I don’t think he’s running the country real f***ing good”.
Byrne conceded readers of his posts would think that he’s a “f***ing nutcase”, and others had warned him to be careful how he communicates.
Defence lawyer Dimitri Osianlis said the “juvenile” and “extremely poor taste” posts were not intended to be taken seriously.
And that they shouldn’t be prosecuted as a hate crime, he said.
It was arguable whether the tweets were menacing or harassing, given they were against the “most powerful man in Australia” with “some of the greatest security available”, Mr Osianlis said.
At the time, Byrne, a cattle truck driver and operator, was said to be in a lawsuit over a defective truck that cost him $120,000 to repair.
As a result, he was struggling with alcohol abuse at the time, and had since quit drinking.
Since being charged, Byrne was said to have been humiliated on social media and confronted outside court.
Magistrate Jacinta Studham noted that Byrne had escaped conviction for similar offending in 2022.
She said she needed to send a message to him that there are consequences for his offensive and menacing language.
“You’re entitled to your political views. What you’re not entitled to do is make the threats or use the language you did on this platform.
“Courts are becoming concerned about this type of behaviour. You probably wouldn’t walk up to someone and say the things you’ve said, yet you’ve put it online.”
Ms Studham rejected a prosecution submission for a community corrections order due to the damage it would do to Byrne’s livelihood.
A CCO would confine the currently-unemployed interstate truck driver to Victoria.
This would be against the community’s interest given that a gainfully employed Byrne might be distracted from reoffending, Ms Studham said.
Byrne was convicted and fined $2500.
