Earlier this month FriendlyJordies producer Kristo Langker was charged with stalking NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro. After pleading not guilty to both charges, Langker has revealed in court today that he wants to be tried by jury.
21-year-old Langker was charged with two offenses of “stalk or intimidate intending to cause fear of physical or mental harm” over two videos Barilaro alleges were part of a smear campaign against him.
The vast majority of the public were originally made aware of the charges when FriendlyJordies creator Jordan Shanks took to YouTube earlier this month to announce that Kristo had been arrested by the NSW Police Fixated Person’s Investigation Unit – a unit established in 2017 that’s meant to target lone extremists. The channel has since been involved with a very public spat between them and the deputy premier.
Today, barrister Emmanuel Kerkyasharian, who represents Langker, told Newtown Local Court that Langker wants the case to be handled by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and for there to be a jury trial, “if it progresses that far”.
Langker is currently on bail on the charges and Magistrate Glenn Bartley lifted some of the bail conditions after Langker’s solicitor termed them “a gag order”.
Langker was previously prohibited from going within 200m of any place Barilaro works, the distance has now been reduced to 100m.
Jordan Shanks described the charges in an explosive YouTube video titled Arrested that he posted on June 14th, 2021. The video has since received over a million views.
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“Up until recently I’ve treated this legal problem with the levity it deserves, but in all honesty, every move I’ve made no matter how ridiculous it appeared, has been both legal and considered. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Deputy Premier, who has impulsively, maliciously escalated the situation at every turn, and in doing so, out clowned the clown,” Shanks said.
He added: “I understood that the usual procedure for silence and dissent in a Western democracy is to outspend your opponent, legally or electorally. What I did not realise is that defence is quite literally paper thin. Australia does have its own secret police, and they get sent in very quickly, particularly when the skin is as thin as said paper.”
“On the 4th of June plain-clothed armed officers stormed into my employee’s home, violently assaulted his family, nearly killed his dog, pinned him to the ground, handcuffed him and dragged him into an unmarked police car,” Shanks concluded.
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