Zane Alchin and his girlfriend outside court late last year. Picture: John Grainger
A 25-YEAR-OLD man today pleaded guilty to using a carrier service to menace, harass, or cause offence, after he drunkenly posted derogatory comments about Sydney woman Olivia Melville on Facebook.
Zane Alchin, from Caringbah in Sydney’s south, told police he was drunk when posting the comments and did not realise what he was doing was a crime, court documents show.
Mr Alchin could face jail and his case could set a precedent for victims of online abuse. Mr Alchin had previously pleaded not guilty, but changed his plea in court today. The maximum sentence for the charge is three years imprisonment.
Last August, a different man named Chris Hall posted a screenshot of Ms Melville’s Tinder profile on Facebook.
“Type of girl that will suck you dry and then eat some lunch with you,” read Ms Melville’s Tinder bio, a lyric from Canadian singer Drake’s hit song Only.
Mr Hall posted the screenshot on his Facebook page with the caption, “Stay classy ladies. I’m surprised she’d still be hungry for lunch.”
Mr Hall was later fired from his job for violating his employer’s social media policy.
Zane Alchin flips the bird to photographers outside a Newtown court last year. Picture: John GraingerSource:News Corp Australia
Ms Melville’s friends shared Mr Hall’s post on their own Facebook pages and criticised him for his offensive language.
Mr Alchin, the man who today plead guilty, commented on several of these posts calling Ms Melvile and her friends “f***ing basic sluts”.
One of his comments read: “It’s people like you who make it clear women should never have been given rights.” Another said “I’d rape you if you were better looking”.
When Ms Melville’s friends tried to warn Mr Alchin about the severity of his actions, he replied: “What law am I breaking, I’m not the one out of the f***ing kitchen”.
According to documents tendered to court, and seen by news.com.au, Mr Alchin admitted to police that he posted the comments and that he was remorseful.
He also claimed he was drunk at the time, about 12.30pm on Tuesday, August 25, and that the comments “do not represent what he is about”.
Mr Alchin told police he got the idea for some of his comments from an anti-feminist website, “to offend a group of feminists that were harassing me and my friends”.
He said he was internet trolling and was unaware what he was doing was a crime, the documents show.
Ms Melville’s friend Paloma Brierley Newton, a spokeswoman for activist group Sexual Violence Won’t be Silenced, told news.com.au outside court she was shocked at the guilty plea but hoped the case would set a precedent.
“By standing up and saying [Alchin is] guilty of a crime, it can put an end to all the backlash of ‘This is just the internet, This isn’t a crime’,” she told reporters outside Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney today.
“I mean, this is a crime. You’re protected by the law. You should never have to feel harassed or victimised anywhere. It doesn’t matter where it is.”
Ms Newton wants Mr Alchin to apologise to Ms Melville for his comments.
“I think [pleading] guilty’s one thing, but actually admitting you’ve done the wrong thing, as opposed to realising you can’t get out of what you’ve done, is another,” she said.
“I want to hear him say that he is sorry for what he’s said, rather than he’s sorry he got caught.”
The original post by Mr Hall. Picture: FacebookSource:Facebook
Dr Emma Jane, a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales who studies gendered online abuse, told the ABC this would be a landmark case and put the spotlight on legal and police responses to online harassment of women.
She said it would also help determine if Facebook was deemed a “carriage service”.
“Threatening to rape or hurt someone is quite serious,” Dr Jane told ABC News. “If I threatened you in another context, it would be taken very seriously.”
“I think not only Australians but people around the world will be looking on to see how this case plays out.”
Mr Alchin will be sentenced on July 29.
rebecca.sullivan@news.com.au
