Statement about James Costello
In 2021, James Costello was arrested for a public order offence for “distributing material with the intention to stir up racial hatred”. In 2022, James became an activist with Patriotic Alternative.
An investigation kicked off which resulted in James being charged with 21 offences. These offences are public order offences and relate to him distributing books and recording audio books for the Creativity Movement. To clarify, James was not charged for his own words, but for distributing and publishing the words of the Creativity Movement, which is the religion that James ascribes to.
The Creativity Movement is a religion that was founded in America approximately 60 years ago and it often uses racial slurs in its teachings.
Unfortunately this week James was found guilty by jury trial for these offences. He is currently awaiting sentencing and has been advised that he could potentially be looking at 5-6 years, although we are hopeful that he doesn’t get that long.
We would like to clarify that none of James’s charges relate to Patriotic Alternative in any way and predate his joining of our organisation. However, James is a valued member of our community and we will be standing by him and supporting him, including supporting his right to freedom of speech. We will provide a further update once we learn more.