Man who performed Nazi salute in public has not rehabilitated, court hears

WARNING: This story contains offensive content.

A Canberra man who performed a Nazi salute in public and spread white supremacist stickers around a university campus has not renounced his ideology since the offences, a court has heard.

Earlier this year, Zachery James Hook pleaded guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court to making a Nazi salute in public between October and December last year, and behaving offensively on Commonwealth premises between August and September.

He had been accused of performing Nazi salutes at two suburban shopping centres and placing white supremacist stickers over Indigenous and multicultural signs at the Australian National University (ANU).

The then 18-year-old was initially charged with six offences after a joint police operation, including investigators from the National Security Investigations team, raided his Weston home on Christmas Eve.

Four of the charges were withdrawn following the guilty pleas.

Hook has been out on bail while awaiting sentencing.

Stickers 'caused great anxiety' on campus

According to court documents, Hook went to the ANU campus twice in August and September 2025 carrying stickers bearing slogans including "National Socialist Network", "Australia for the white man" and "White revolution is the only solution".

The National Socialist Network is a Neo-Nazi group that was banned earlier this year under the Australian government's hate speech laws.

He placed the stickers over signs for the Tjabal Indigenous Higher Education Centre, a support and gathering space for First Nations students and staff, as well as on a cabinet and door inside the university's Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) department building.

The agreed facts state that one sticker advocating that Australia should belong to "the White Man" was placed over a poster encouraging multiculturalism and cultural appreciation, and on a collage promoting themes of decolonisation and the experiences of First Peoples.

During a sentencing hearing on Thursday, a victim impact statement was read to the court on behalf of Anne Martin, the director of the Tjabal Indigenous Education Centre.

Professor Martin said she was responsible for the wellbeing, safety and support of Indigenous students at the university.

She said the stickers placed at the centre by Hook had "caused great anxiety" among students and staff, as well as for herself.

Since the offences, she said the sense of safety she had previously felt had been lost as she did not know if it was an isolated incident, or if it would escalate.

"The centre ... is a place where students should feel safe," she said in the statement.

"The actions that occurred on campus disrupted that sense of safety."

Professor Martin urged Hook to "seriously consider the impact your actions have had, particularly on other people".

"We are all entitled to be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of the colour of our skin," she said.

"I hope that as you move forward … [this] allows you to make a more positive contribution to the community around you."

'Nowhere does he renounce ... Neo-Nazism'

The agreed facts also outlined two separate occasions on which Hook performed a Nazi salute in public.

On October 5, Hook put up a poster reading "White Man Fight Back" at the O'Connor shops.

After members of the public removed the poster as well as another from a nearby bus stop, Hook confronted one woman and asked why she was taking them down.

"It's not scary, it's just people loving their own kind", Hook told her.

As he walked away, Hook stopped, performed a Nazi salute and used an anti-Semitic slogan.

During the sentencing hearing, the prosecution said that Hook had initially pleaded not guilty, and only entered a guilty plea after the case had appeared before the court multiple times.

"He has not in his letter to this court ... taken the opportunity to renounce those views," the prosecutor said.

"Nowhere does he renounce ... his association with Neo-Nazism or his association with whatever group he was associated with at the time."

She said a letter from Hook's parents also did not show that he had changed his views in their presence.

"Describing this offending as 'inappropriate' is so inadequate as to almost be inaccurate,"she said.

"When your Honour comes to assessing contrition [and] remorse ... there's really no evidence of any of that."

Dead rodent left in letterbox

But Hook's defence lawyer Sam Collett said consideration should be made with relation to Hook's youth, at just 19 years old, and the fact he had no previous criminal history.

Mr Collett said since the offending, a rodent had been left in Hook's letterbox and eggs had been thrown at his home.

And while Mr Collett said Hook "only has himself to blame for that", he had shown signs of having reflected on his actions.

He said the three days Hook had spent in jail after his arrest fell over Christmas and were "harrowing" and that he had made an effort to re-engage with the family support around him.

With those factors in mind, he asked the magistrate to consider a suspended sentence so Hook could remain in the community.

Hook is facing a minimum sentence of 12 months.

The case will return to court later this month.