Transcript

HAMISH ROBERTSON: In Western Australia, police have finally caught up with the leader of an extremist group after a series of racist graffiti attacks in Perth.

Last night, police charged Jack van Tongeren with four counts of conspiracy to commit arson and 19 counts of criminal damage.

Van Tongeren had been in hiding, but when police took him into custody late yesterday, he was in the centre of Perth, and, as David Weber now reports, insisting he was innocent.

DAVID WEBER: Jack van Tongeren was taken into police custody at the RSL Club in Perth. Officers say they went to the club after someone saw van Tongeren and waved down a police car.

Van Tongeren's version of events was different. He claimed he'd organised to meet police at the club to discuss recent events involving members of the ANM. He said he was innocent of any crime. The self-declared racist also revealed he'd been in hiding because he was afraid the authorities were planning to shoot him.

JACK VAN TONGEREN: I put me life and liberty on the line to just set the record straight and try to do the right thing by me own people and that, and I've been jumped on.

DAVID WEBER: Those young men have blamed it on you, though, Jack, those young men have blamed the graffiti attacks on you … that you incited them.

JACK VAN TONGEREN: They may well have. I came here, do you think I'd come here to arrange a meeting with the superintendent if I was guilty? Think about that.

REPORTER: But Jack, people have been saying that you've been hiding out for a week.

JACK VAN TONGEREN: Of course. Because my life and liberty has been in danger - we were scared of the ASIO Bill being used to gun us down. Anybody else would do the same thing in the same situation.

DAVID WEBER: In the past week, two members of the Australian Nationalist Movement were jailed. The men – both in their 20s – had pleaded guilty to scrawling racist graffiti and anti-Jewish slogans on several buildings in Perth last month. A third man got a suspended sentence.

The graffiti attacks prompted the State Government to release plans for tough reforms to racial vilification laws. While the Government's issued a consultation paper, the Premier said he'd go straight to Cabinet with a plan to increase the maximum jail term from two years to 14. There are also plans to allow complainants to take civil action in the courts.

As he was being led away, van Tongeren was pessimistic about his own future.

JACK VAN TONGEREN: I am an ex-digger, I'm a grunt, I fought in the army, I'm trying to do the right thing. I think I'm going to be arrested for life. I think my whole life is over, coming here, trying to do the right thing.

HAMISH ROBERTSON: That was Jack van Tongeren, ending that report by David Weber in Perth.