A NSW man accused of planning a Christchurch massacre-inspired terrorist attack alongside his brother was just having a bit of fun and provoking people online, but did not have criminal intent, his lawyer has told a court.
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Joshua Lucas, 23, has pleaded not guilty to preparing or planning for a terrorist act, and intentionally advocating for others to do a terrorist act.
His brother Benjamin, 25, who is accused of jointly preparing or planning for a terrorist act with him, has also pleaded not guilty.
The pair were arrested in March 2020, ending what prosecutors allege was a year of plotting.
Both men subscribed to neo-Nazi ideology and idolised the Christchurch terrorist, a gunman who killed 51 Muslim worshippers in March 2019, the crown prosecutor said when outlining his case in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The brothers were yet to finalise the specifics of the terror attack, Chris O'Donnell said, but Joshua Lucas had searched for potential targets, researched recipes for makeshift bombs and detonated three to test out methods.
An extensive cache of messages from online chatrooms over the year also shows Joshua Lucas talking about shooting up mosques, mowing down Chinese people and killing Aboriginal Australians.
"I'm not a psychopath, but yes, I support and promote terrorism," Joshua Lucas allegedly wrote in one message read out to the court.
In others, he encouraged his peers to "bomb your local mosque" and "turn that hate into motivation to commit terrorism".
When opening her case on Wednesday, Joshua Lucas' barrister told the court he was just "s***posting" - what she described as low-quality trolling and ironic online posts designed to provoke other users into an emotional response.
"You might be satisfied that what Joshua Lucas had to say ... was offensive, distasteful ... sometimes vaguely amusing," Madeleine Avenell said.
"It included a lot of what could be described as s***posting.
"But what I'll be suggesting to you is that they are not reflective of a terrorist intent."
His actions - which include building what she contended were "sparkler bombs", spray painting a car with references to famous white nationalists, and posing with military gear, extremist symbols and fake guns - should be viewed the same way.
"You'll be able to interpret Joshua Lucas'... activities in a similar way - as jokes, a hobby, a bit of fun," Ms Avenell said.
When describing his case to the jury, Benjamin Lucas' lawyer said his client had no idea what his brother was saying or doing.
Slade Howell disputed that Benjamin had sent messages to a US-based extremist group, seeking to join, saying he was not involved in the creation of the account or the emails.
Similarly, a Tinder profile containing right wing extremist symbols and phrases was not made by him.
He also was not in the same public Telegram chat rooms as Joshua Lucas.
Benjamin Lucas did spray paint the car with his friends, dressed up with extremist symbols and took photos, and attended one of the sparkler bomb detonations, but that was just juvenile fooling around with his friends, Mr Howell said.
"To put it bluntly, some of the group's activities were at times not just distasteful, but racist, to say the least," he said.
But he is a person of good character with no criminal history, and simply wouldn't plan a terrorist attack with his brother.
"You'll hear evidence and read evidence ... that when they are held up to the sober lights of this courtroom, don't cast him in a particularly positive light," Mr Howell said.
"(But) he is not on trial for being distasteful or offensive or for... behaving like an idiot."
The trial continues.
Australian Associated Press
