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Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has slammed the YouTubers who entered and filmed the final hideout of police killer Dezi Freeman before posting the footage online, calling the videos “disrespectful” of the families of the slain officers.
Speaking on ABC Radio Melbourne on Tuesday, the premier said the families of Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson and Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart deserved better.
“This sort of behaviour, it’s disrespectful to the men and women of Victoria Police who lost two colleagues [and] the families of those men,” she said.
“My thoughts immediately went to the families of Neal and Vadim, who I know continue to grieve their loss.”
The two officers were killed by Freeman – a self-described sovereign citizen – after they entered his Porepunkah property on August 26 to carry out a search warrant in relation to historical child sexual abuse allegations. Freeman opened fire, killing the officers and injuring another.
Footage from inside his final hideout was published last week by YouTube channel The Chaos Chronicles, with three other videos following.
In a statement on Monday evening, Victoria Police confirmed they were investigating a report of trespass at the property on April 16.
“Investigators are aware of a video posted online in relation to the trespass and are investigating the circumstances,” they said.
On Tuesday, YouTuber Leif Hughes posted a fourth video to The Chaos Chronicles, saying he was adamant the videos did not break any laws in obtaining the footage.
Hughes claimed he had gone to the property last week with the intention to fly his drone over it, but was forced to enter and retrieve the device after it crashed. Once there, he and a cameraman decided to venture into the shipping container before continuing to explore the rest of the property.
According to the channel he pilots, Hughes has been in bike clubs and gangs, and spent “more time than anything” in prison. In the latest video, he lashed out at the media for depicting him as a criminal and claimed he hadn’t “broken any laws in well over five years”.
He also claimed police had not contacted him in relation to the footage, which has amassed more than 120,000 views across the four videos.
Victoria Police on Tuesday evening confirmed their investigation is ongoing.
Hughes’ footage showed the interior of a shipping container at the remote property in Thologolong where Freeman spent his final days.
On a dusty wooden table were two vitamin bottles – one of odourless wild fish oil, the other magnesium. Next to that was a box of tissues, an empty container that had contained sliced peaches, a bottle of methylated spirits, a small notepad, a pen, and salt and pepper shakers. A brown couch sat across from a generator, with a pair of dirty Ugg boots left next to it.
A man known for his ability to survive in the wild, Freeman fled into the bush surrounding Porepunkah immediately after killing Thompson and de Waart-Hottart, sparking one of the biggest manhunts in the state’s history.
For more than 200 days, he was a wanted fugitive. Many believed him to be dead until he was lured out of his hideout 150 kilometres away from Porepunkah, seven months on.
After hours of unsuccessful police negotiations, Freeman emerged from the Thologolong hideout wrapped in a blanket before he opened fire with a weapon he had stolen from one of the slain officers. Police responded, killing him at the site.
The property’s owner, Richard Sutherland, said he had no connection to Freeman and had been unaware the wanted man was living at his property. Sutherland, who has been living in Tasmania for months, is not suspected of any involvement.
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