A conspiracy theorist who thinks McDonald’s uses baby meat has secured a second chance to fight allegations he intimidated 2GB staff — after “confusion” saw him convicted.
David Michael Graham, known online as “Guru,” succeeded in annulling his convictions for intimidating 2GB host Ben Fordham and a female employe.
Police allege Graham made intimidating phone calls to the radio station and made a threatening comment to the young woman, making her and Fordham fearful of physical or mental harm.
The rollercoaster sequence of events that followed Graham’s choice to represent himself in the case were aired in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on Friday.
A self-described “freethinker,” Graham had always intended to fight the charges.
But he told the court he was “very confused” about the many letters coming from different NSW courts, causing him to miss an appearance earlier this month and be convicted of the charges in his absence.
“I have an affidavit stating I was very confused with the documentation I was receiving from different courts as I started the process … one came from Kiama, one from Wollongong,” Graham told the court.
“I’m not very tech savvy — I’m 62. I was given two court dates, both on the 8th, one in Wollongong and one here. I didn’t understand the paperwork, Your Honour.”
Among many of Graham’s extreme views voiced on his podcast Stop the rot, sack the lot and in public include that McDonald’s burgers are made of baby meat, the Covid pandemic was a hoax and the government – which is supposedly robbing Australians of 75 per cent tax – should be “removed”.
In an interview with news personality Chriscoveries before an earlier court appearance in Wollongong, Graham gave insight into his version of events regarding the 2GB spat.
“We more or less told Ben Fordham’s little girl to go home for the day so they took that as a threat” he said.
“We meant ‘you oughta go home for the day because your phones aren’t gonna stop ringing and you’re not gonna have a very great day’.
Sourness towards Fordham began on Sunday January 29, when Graham recorded himself and other sovereign citizens bombarding staff at 2GB with phone calls after claiming they were snubbed by Fordham for a spot on the show.
But according to Fordham, that interview was never guaranteed.
At court on Friday, Deputy Chief Magistrate Theo Tsavdaridis was sympathetic to Graham’s confusion.
He said court officers work across various court registries and sometimes the letter heads “make reference to different locations and indeed different levels”.
“It seems there were letters saying he should attend Wollongong Court, others saying Goulburn Street … the confusion caused him not to attend on June 8,” Magistrate Tsavdaridis said.
“He was convicted in his absence, despite a hearing date being fixed for August 23”.
Magistrate Tsavdaridis annulled the two stalk or intimidate convictions, confirmed Graham’s not guilty pleas and dismissed a charge of failing to appear to court.
Despite the criminal charges, Graham has not veered far from the spotlight.
In March, he made headlines over a cancelled event Surf Life Saving NSW say was caused by him, leading him to threaten to sue the organisation and his local paper.
A NSW surf lifesaving club took the extraordinary step of cancelling its last nipper program of the season after a video was posted by Graham calling on his followers to ask why they’re “pushing this woke s***” of Pride Week flags.
He urged his followers to “hit our surf clubs this weekend” and wait until the “four and five-year-old nippers”.
“Then we go up, and we see these people in the surf lifesaving facilities and ask them why they’re pushing this woke *s**t … why they’ve got their rainbow flags everywhere,” he said in a video seen by news.com.au.
Wollongong’s Thirroul Surf Life Saving Club eventually cancelled its last program of the year.
Upon hearing he had made front page news for the SLS shutdown, Graham shared legal letters to both Surf Lifesaving NSW and the Illawarra Mercury demanding both entities apologise and retract claims made about him.
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In the letter addressed to the top brass at Surf Lifesaving NSW, Graham claimed he was a trolling victim and demanded an apology and proof he was not being inclusive within seven days.
“I demand a full apology as I, Mr Graham, called for public members to question the use of the rainbow flag in relation to children, and has (sic) stated that children should not be sexualised,” the letter read.
Graham will next face court in February, ahead of his hearing over the intimidation charges.
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