Melony Attwood is a self-proclaimed and proud white supremacist.
JUST weeks ago, Robert Wayne Edhouse was pulling out all the stops to get his group noticed.
The 20-year-old self-appointed president of the Aryan Nations Perth chapter went on a massive publicity and recruit drive.
He “spammed” bloggers and wrote to newspapers, complaining that nobody was writing about his white supremacist group. He letterboxed residents, urging his “white brothers and sisters” to “show pride in your race” and “secure a future for white children” in Australia.
Last week Edhouse, 20, did get in the papers, but not for the reason he probably would have liked. He was charged with the murder of Alan Taylor, a 42-year-old FIFO (fly in, fly out) worker who was found dead at his home in the northern Perth suburb of Girrawheen on April 22.
Three others, including Mr Taylor’s ex, Melony Jane Attwood, 35, Corey Joshua Dymock, 19, and a 17-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons, have also been charged.
Attwood, who has a three-year-old son with Mr Taylor and uses his last name for her Facebook account, runs a group called Aryan Girls United and police have confirmed Dymock’s links to Aryan Nations.
While investigators have stated that the murder has no connection with the hate group and that Mr Taylor was not a member, it has cast a spotlight on the white supremacy movement in Australia.
Murdered: FIFO worker and father Alan Taylor was not affiliated with Aryan Nations, according to police.Source:Facebook
The Aryan Nations flyer hand delivered to letterboxes in suburban Perth earlier this yearSource:Facebook
In February, WA Today interviewed Edhouse about the flyers after racist graffiti started appearing around the city. The incidents included a misshapen swastika painted in a carpark and a banner scrawled with “White Lives Matter” found hanging at the Midlands Shopping Centre in December.
Edhouse defended the flyers by claiming their purpose was to alert Australians to the dangers of Islam.
“You only have to see what’s happening with immigration in Europe to see it’s been ransacked by Muslims.” Edhouse told the paper. “It’s not happening here yet, but we don’t want to see it happening.”
Idiots: The badly drawn swastika found in a Perth carparkSource:Facebook
According to Dr Diane Bretherton, Adjunct Professor in political science and international studies University of Queensland, such views are typical of white supremacist groups.
“Fear is very important, a great inflation of threat,” Dr Bretherton told News.com.au. “For example, there aren’t that many Muslims in Australia but [white supremacist] groups have gained visibility through the refugee crisis, using it to create a perception of a threat that doesn’t really exist.”
As uneducated and terrified of the world as Edhouse and his group come across, the Aryan Nations Perth website includes photographs suggesting violence.
In one photograph, Edhouse is seen holding a hangman’s noose as he poses with Dennis McGiffen, the leader of white supremacist motorcycle gang Sadistic Souls during a trip to the US.
He has also been photographed with “far right activist” Jim Saleam, who is chairman of the Australia First Party.
Mr Taylor’s parents this week sought to distance their son from Aryan Nations following a May 11 Facebook post containing a series of unsubstantiated allegations by anti-Fascist organisation Antifa Australia.
“Turns out that the Perth murder of Alan George Taylor was done by UPF (United Patriot Front) members and [white supremacists], as stated by Shermon Burgess and Neil Erikson (both formerly UPF and the latter a confessed ex-Nazi),” Antifa said.
Mr Taylor’s heartbroken parents (pictured) are furious their son is being tarnished with the same brush as his four alleged killers, all of whom have links to white supremacist group Aryan Nations.Source:Facebook
“Just wanted you all to know WE are Alan Parents (sic) who have had to organise a funeral after he was brutally and senselessly murdered and he was put to rest today his family and true friends are all shattered and heartbroken,” Mr Taylor’s mother Rosemary said in reply to the Antifa post.
“MELONY JANE was ‘NOT MARRIED’ to our son ... her name is ‘MELONY JANE ATTWOOD’ not Taylor.”
Mr Taylor was the nephew of Malcolm Taylor, who died in the Yarloop bushfire on January 7.
“The family were only able to have Malcolm’s funeral seven weeks ago and now we have another tragedy, not through illness or a car crash, but because he was murdered,” Mrs Taylor said in another Facebook post.
“And for what? Why murder a person? My son was a really good well-liked man and such a hard worker.”
All four of Mr Taylor’s alleged killers have been remanded in custody to appear in court at a date yet to be set.
