Kristo Langker, 21, a producer for YouTube channel Friendlyjordies was arrested at his family home at Dulwich Hill on June 4th and charged with two counts of stalking or intimidating NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro.
As Sydney Morning Herald report, senior police told a NSW parliamentary hearing that an incorrect process was followed when police from the Fixated Persons Unit arrested Langker, as he was snot assessed by a panel to determine if he was fixated.
Langker was arrested and charged after he approached Barilaro twice, at Macquarie University on April 19, and on a street near Parliament on June 4. Footage of both interactions was broadcast on the Friendlyjordies channel.
In footage from the June interaction, Langker was captured approaching Deputy Barilaro, who stood next to his car near State Parliament. The politician did not acknowledge Langker, who approached him saying “Hey John, John, John. Oi John. I’ve got something for you. John, I’ve got a lawsuit. You’re suing my boss”.
Langker was arrested later that day by officers from the Fixated Persons Unit. Following the arrest, lawyers representing Langker said charges will be defended “as vigorously as possible”.
In a NSW budget estimates hearing on Wednesday, NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Dave Hudson and Assistant Commissioner Mark Walton were questioned about the use of the Fixated Persons Unit (FPU)
During the hearing, Walton acknowledged that in order for the FPU to be assigned, it must receive a referral from the terrorism intelligence unit. A panel involving members of NSW Health then determines whether a person’s fixation is linked to a mental health issue.
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Hudson noted that the FPU has a “broad remit” to look at a broad-spectrum of fixation, relative to anything from terrorism to being fixated on a celebrity. As SMH note, the unit has investigated 600 matters since its 2017 inception, resulting in 150 people being charged.
The hearing illuminated that an employee at the Department of Premier and Cabinet referred Jordan Shanks, the host of the Friendlyjordies channel, to police at Sydney City Police Area Command in December 2020 over alleged harassment of Deputy Barilaro.
This referral was passed on to the terrorism intelligence unit and assessed by the panel, before being appropriately referred to the FPU. However, Langker himself had not gone through the required referral process.
During the hearing Hudson asked the acting commander of the the investigation to review what happened, noting, “I don’t think appropriate processes were properly followed”.
“Because there was a conduit of contact between the Deputy Premier’s office and the Fixated Persons Unit, there was some contact made, and I think the Fixated Persons Unit treated it as an escalation of the same incident, rather than a separate incident with a separate suspect,” Hudson said.
Hudson continued to note that Langker should have been treated as a separate suspect, and the process of being assessed by the terrorism intelligence unit prior to the FPU should have been followed.
However, Hudson acknowledged that had due processes been followed “we would have the same result.”
“I was more concerned about the process that was followed rather than the outcome,” he said. “I don’t see the Fixated Persons Unit investigating this matter as being a mistake.”
