Victorian political tyrant Andrews is under growing pressure.

By TONY MOBILIFONITIS

VICTORIAN magistrate Dunn’s striking down of a misprision of treason and fraud at common law charges against Victoria’s dictator Dan Andrews at Myrtelford last Friday has set up Andrews and the state government for further court action over illegal changes to Acts of Parliament.

The magistrate was surrounded by police when he made his decision, raising suggestions that police were expecting or seeking to provoke some sort of violent confrontation.

Police also arrested a man at the venue, an act conveniently caught by the 7News clowns who turned up at Myrtelford, no doubt tipped off by the state government who wanted to disrupt and distract from the actual case. The man, Desi Freeman, was later released.

Misprision of treason is the offence of failing to report or concealing treason, which in the case of Victoria refers to the state’s removal of Queen Elizabeth II from the Oath of Allegiance and the removal of the Crown from a Western Australia act that incorporates the Commonwealth and substitutes the governor of the state for the Queen.

Chiropractor Anthony Herman awaits the start of his case with a bottle of kombucha.

The private prosecution by chiropractor Anthony Herman against Dan Andrews was mysteriously struck down by the magistrate in the midst of a chaos related to the court’s WebEx online electronic filing, which is accessible to the wider community. Some 250 people traveled to the north-east Victoria town to hear the case.

The media claimed the action, listed as No.1 on the court list, was struck down because the charges had not been served. But the informant Herman (coached by Brian Shaw) was waiting and ready to proceed with the charges in a building near the court linked to the court room. Herman was unaware that the case had been struck out when the system appeared to break down.

Former ASIC senior lawyer Graeme Little, who provided live streaming of the day, said the outcome would merely spur the participants on to further action, possibly seeking a rehearing. A defendant in a traffic matter at the court was using the same background papers as Herman. His case was adjourned to April 2022. Little said another case using the background papers had “caused a kerfuffle” in the County Court of Victoria.

The chaotic online activity was jumped upon and mocked by AAP court reporter Karen Sweeney, who posted dozens of the comments that appeared on the WebX system on Twitter, one after the other, but with no reference to the actual charges. Some of the comments appeared to be coming from people who simply wanted to disrupt the hearing.

“A few people have asked why it was struck out. The order issued by the magistrate says ‘charge issued not served’. Charges have to be served on a person before a court proceeding can actually begin – if you don’t, there’s nothing to actually begin,” the reporter concluded, as if the whole thing was a joke. No Ms Sweeney, misprision of treason is a serious issue and just because the average reporter is ignorant of such law doesn’t justify unethical, biased coverage. The Age newspaper referred to the case as a circus.

Although Brian Shaw the co-informant’s previous efforts to charge politicians with misprision of treason failed to gain traction back in the Rudd-Gillard era, the political atmosphere at this time is radically different with tens of thousands of Aussies out on the streets every week and government sliding even further into an illegal morass.

Bernie Finn MP, one of those “dangerous” Liberal Party rebels, made the following comment about the case: “Despot Dan is due to appear in the Myrtelford Magistrate’s Court next Friday morning in what should be a most interesting and important case. Let’s not forget the world famous gangster Al Capone ended up going to prison for tax evasion.”

Finn’s comment came despite him being among Victoria’s 137 politicians all facing a common purpose indictment in the same charges as Andrews. That matter will be dealt with by a Grand Jury accessible to the public on a website run by the Peacemakers.

Today, private prosecutions are mostly used by municipal councils, building authorities and animal welfare groups, but are also employed by members of the public who believe the authorities have dismissed their claims for justice.

The newspaper said the case against Andrews faced significant challenges, with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions likely to take control of the matter before it gets off the ground. The CDPP supposedly has the power to overtake and discontinue private prosecutions should it find it has no reasonable prospect of a conviction being secured on the available evidence or was ‘not in the public interest’.

In July, a private prosecution against the Chief Magistrate of Victoria Lisa Hannan was dealt with in Victoria under similar laws, showing those in the media mocking the case that the private prosecution process is very real.