A West Australian man accused of plotting a “mass casualty” terror attack on the state’s parliament, police headquarters and Perth mosques detailed his alleged plan to make weapons and armour in a diary, in which he wrote that he was addicted to a website called Watch People Die.
Details of how Jayson Joseph Michaels, 20, allegedly planned to carry out acts of terrorism he called “preparing for the day of justice” were aired in Perth Magistrates Court for the first time on Wednesday as the Bindoon man applied for bail.
Michaels’ legal team argued his 20-page diary was nothing more than the hollow ramblings of a depressed and isolated young man.
The WA Joint Counter Terrorism Team arrested Michaels in February following an investigation into his online activities and the execution of a search warrant at his rural home north of Perth.
Police alleged Michaels was “radicalised” online and motivated to carry out the attacks by a white supremacist ideology.
But on Wednesday, Michaels’ lawyer Christian Porter painted a different picture of the former private schoolboy.
Porter told the court Michaels was “full of bigotry, ignorance, loneliness, depression” as he detailed how his client wrote about plans to get the money together to make his own guns using a 3D printer and a CNC machine, design his own armour and then allegedly carry out his attacks in “2028- 2029″.
“He’s revealed as a pretender, full of high-written outcomes and big things, failing to produce every single time,” Porter said.
“[They are] daydreams, pipe dreams, grandiose, fantasy.
“He’s talking this horrible big game about weapons and what you’re going to do. It’s a mechanism for ingratiating yourself to this group of morons online.”
Prosecutors opposed the bail application, arguing that whether Michael’s alleged written plans were “ideation or intention” should be up to a jury, and telling the magistrate that, when police went to his house to arrest him, they found he was looking at a website called Watch People Die on his computer.
Prosecutors told the court the case against Michaels was strong, adding that his diary “is a clear expression of his intent to engage in a terrorist act”.
“The accused is inspired to take action. He lists what he’s going to do. He’s inspired to take action despite recent government moves to limit him, [including] firearms, social media bans, hate speech [laws],” the state prosecutor said.
“It’s a progressive planning. He’s going to exercise, diet and fitness regime.
“He acts on that and starts a boxing lesson. He says he’s going to get a shed or build a shed – he wants it to build his first gun in two months. After erecting shed, he wants to work on designs.”
Prosecutors alleged that Michaels compared his plan to the Bondi terrorist attack, writing about how it would impact his plot and how he was “concerned there may be things arising from that that would make it harder for him to act”.
“What I want to do to both of these groups pales in comparison to what my people have been through … WWII,” they alleged Michaels wrote.
They also alleged Michaels researched locks on doors at a mosque, entry points, and when there might be people there.
“He has a lock-picking device in his bedroom to practise picking locks on the east door of Perth Mosque,” prosecutors told the court.
They argued that releasing the 20-year-old into home detention was risky, because his parents had been none the wiser about his online activities, adding that, according to an expert doctor’s report it was “likely” he had been radicalised and they “cannot rule out further offending”.
Magistrate Belinda Coleman called the diary entries “disturbing”.
“They’re not just the uttered ramblings of a disturbed mind,” she said.
“He discusses a planned attack.
“A large amount of munitions were located at property. It appears some of the knives don’t belong to the accused or were given to him as gifts. Throwing knives and axes was said to be a ‘family activity’. I don’t find it’s a ‘family activity’.”
Coleman told the court that, during Michaels’ arrest, police found 15-20 collectible display knives, a lock-picking education set, two firearms in a locked cabinet in a bedroom and 900 rounds of ammunition on the floor, unsecured, because the family bought in bulk to save costs.
“These writings demonstrate he is a disturbed youth,” she said.
She said Michaels had not the shown exceptional circumstances necessary to be granted bail and denied his application.
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