A producer of YouTube channel Friendlyjordies has been charged with stalking NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro.
Police arrested Kristo Langker, 21, at his Dulwich Hill home, in Sydney’s inner west, and charged him with stalking offences on June 4.
Officers allege Mr Langker committed the offences against the deputy premier at Macquarie University on April 19 and in Sydney on June 4.
‘A man has been charged following investigations by the Fixated Persons Investigation Unit into alleged stalking offences,’ NSW Police said in a statement.
Police arrested Kristo Langker, 21, at his Dulwich Hill home, in Sydney’s inner west, and charged him with stalking offences on June 4
Officers allege Mr Langker committed the offences against NSW deputy premier John Barilaro at Macquarie University on April 19 and in Sydney on June 4
Mr Langker has been granted strict conditional bail and is due to appear at Newtown Local Court on June 24.
Footage of the arrest was uploaded to the YouTube channel showing Mr Langker being escorted by police from his home.
Mr Langker is seen in the video being told he is not allowed to film the arrest and he goes to hand his phone to his mother who is also filming.
The charges are the latest development in the unfolding spat between the friendlyjordies channel and the deputy premier.
The YouTube channel’s star Jordan Shanks-Markovina is already being sued by the deputy premier for defamation over a series of videos.
According to a statement of claim filed in the Federal Court in May by the MP, the videos in question greatly injured his reputation.
‘(He) has been and will be brought into public disrepute, odium, ridicule and contempt,’ the document said.
In one video, the entertainer refers to Mr Barilaro as a ‘big, fat, wog c***’, ‘greasy Ned Kelly’ and ‘a conman to the core, powered by spaghetti’.
The NSW Nationals leader also complained he was given no opportunity to respond to the allegations in the videos, titled ‘bruz’ and ‘Secret Dictatorship’ and which were aired in September and October 2020.
Mr Langker has been granted strict conditional bail and is due to appear at Newtown Local Court on June 24
The YouTube channel’s star Jordan Shanks-Markovina is already being sued by the deputy premier for defamation over a series of videos
His solicitors sent Shanks-Markovina and Google letters in December 2020, demanding the videos be taken down due to their alleged defamatory nature.
The videos were also the subject of another letter sent to Google in January.
‘No response was ever received to the letter,’ the statement of claims said.
After news broke that the case was being filed, Shanks-Markovina took to Twitter.
‘Hahahahaha,’ he posted.
He then released a statement and said he was not as rich as Mr Barilaro and didn’t have a lawyer but the suit ‘could have terrible implications for free speech in this country’.
‘The very fact that John filed it proves he doesn’t care about his constituency … as he’ll be too busy in court to do his job.’
Shanks-Markovina has said he would be using a truth defence and had ‘a lot of people’ to subpoena.
He said in one video posted to YouTube that being sued by Mr Barilaro was ‘a long time coming’ and promised to call Mr Barilaro a ‘greasy little scrotum’ more often.
‘The deputy premier of NSW really likes destroying the environment of NSW and is using his office to enrich himself,’ Shanks-Markovina said.
‘I made fun of him for this so naturally, his response was to call me racist for putting on an Italian accent while doing this.’
Source: Daily Mail
