Pair charged with destroying property over attack on Newtown synagogue last month
The two men accused of attempting to light a Newtown synagogue on fire have been refused bail.
Adam Moule, 33, and Leon Sofilas, 37, who are co-accused, appeared via video in Downing Centre local court on Thursday when their individual solicitors made applications for them to be released on bail.
The pair are alleged to have spray-painted 10 swastikas on a synagogue in Newtown on 11 January. They also allegedly sprayed an “unknown liquid” on “sticks and branches bundled together” and lit a fire that quickly burnt out, the court heard. Both have been charged with destroying property using fire.
Magistrate Greg Grogin denied the pair’s application for bail, saying there was an unacceptable risk they would commit a further offence.
“It is said that this offence was a hate-motivated crime,” the magistrate said. The attack was “random” in nature but “planned insofar as there was liquid there and taken to the location”, Grogin told the court. “The random nature of this offence is of great concern to the court.”
Sofilas’s lawyer, Steve Mav, said his client denied the allegations. He had since been moved to protective custody.
“If my client remains in custody we’re talking about him potentially being there for one to two years in a very unsafe environment,” Mav told the court.
Mav told the court Sofilas was Tasered 11 times during his arrest. The magistrate noted that was not mentioned by police in their outline of the facts.
Earlier in the proceedings, the court also heard an application for Sofilas’s co-accused, Moule. Jenni Bridges, a lawyer from the Aboriginal Legal Service who was acting on behalf of Moule, argued he should be released on bail due to his mental health challenges.
“He is an Indigenous man with significant mental health issues,” she told the court.
The court heard that Moule had not been given the medication he takes to treat his anxiety, depression and PTSD since being in custody. The magistrate ruled he should be given his medication.
“He has not been able to speak to his mother or his family,” his lawyer said, adding his mother found out he was in custody via the media.
“He was in custody at the time [his father died] and could not attend the funeral or participate in sorry business.”
The court also heard that Moule lives in social housing and, under the rules, if he is absent from that home for more than six months, he will lose it.
“If he is not granted bail he will lose housing and once again become homeless,” she said.
The police prosecutor, Peter Boctor, opposed bail, arguing there was an unacceptable risk to the community and the objective seriousness of the crime.
In responding to Sofilas’s application, Boctor said there was a risk he would interfere with witnesses and fail to appear at future court dates.
Moule and Sofilas were due in court again on 3 April.
