Chris Nelson, a 64-year-old chiropractor from the NSW Central Coast, has pleaded guilty to charges relating to a Facebook tirade where he called Nova Peris racially derogatory names.
In a Facebook post in late May, Mr Nelson labeled Ms Peris a black c***, told her to ‘go back to the bush’ and ‘stop painting your f***ing face’- referring to Ms Peris’ traditional face-painting during her maiden speech in 2013.
Another post further stated that if it wasn’t for the ‘non existent stolen generation’, Ms Peris would have been ‘raped’ or ‘killed’ by relatives.
Ms Peris shared screen grabs of Mr Nelson’s comments and her response where she stated that she wants to highlight ‘the ugly side of this country as I have always done’.
The post, which included the message ‘#Racism- it stops with me’, garnered 29,000 reactions and more than 16,000 shares.
Mr Nelson denied that he wrote the posts, telling the Central Coast Express Advocate that he was the victim of an ‘extremely vicious’ hacking attack and that South Korean hacker had formerly targeted his account.
“I’m definitely not a racist,” he further told the paper. “I’ve got friends who are Aboriginal and family who are Aboriginal.”
But in his first appearance at Woy Woy local court on Tuesday, Mr Nelson pleaded guilty to using a carrier service to menace, harass or offend.
His sentencing is expected to occur on July 5, where he faces a maximum of three years in prison.