Gay activist did bomb ‘research’ before Australian Christian Lobby hit, by Rachel Blaxendale.
The man accused of driving a burning van laden with gas bottles into the Australian Christian Lobby headquarters was a gay activist who disliked the group because of its “position on sexuality” and had searched online how to make plastic explosives and a pressure-cooker bomb.
Court documents tendered to the ACT Magistrates Court yesterday reveal Jaden Duong had also run searches about gay marriage in other countries and, a month before the alleged attack at 10.45pm on December 21 last year, had searched for the “Australian Christian Lobby”.
What a surprise — nine months later the truth emerges:
After the blast at the group’s Canberra headquarters in Deakin, which gutted the ground floor and caused $100,000 of damage, police said the attack was not “politically, religiously or ideologically motivated” and referred to it as a “car fire”. …
Police allege 36-year-old Mr Duong had stepped up internet searching from July last year for terms including “how to make ammonium nitrate”, “pressure- cooker bomb”, “C4”, “how to buy a gun in Australia”, “gas leak explosion” and “how much gas to cause explosion”.
Interesting that the police know what he was searching for on the Internet.
According to documents tendered in court, soon after the explosion, police asked Mr Duong why he had picked the location.
“Because I dislike the Australian Christian Lobby,” he allegedly replied. Asked why, he allegedly said: “Because religions are failed.”
The documents said he was asked what he aimed to achieve and allegedly replied that he wanted to “blow myself up”.
Police asked if he had “any thoughts about the property”. “Well, if that blew up — yay — but actually I was just trying to blow myself up,” he allegedly replied. …
The Australian understands he previously had volunteered on the political campaign of a gay activist politician and for an LGBTI organisation in San Francisco.
hat-tip Stephen Neil
