Neo-Nazi asks for fine over brutal attack

Neo-Nazi leader Thomas Sewell has asked to be spared a conviction over a brutal attack on a Nine Network security guard. 

The 29-year-old leader of the European Australia Movement faced a pre-sentence hearing on Thursday in Melbourne Magistrates Court, where he was previously found guilty of recklessly causing injury and affray.

Sewell, who represented himself in court, asserted the incident was not racially motivated, saying he would have acted the same way regardless of the guard's race or culture in circumstances where he believed his colleague was under attack. 

Magistrate Stephen Ballek previously found Sewell was "itching for a fight" when he visited the Nine Network's building in Melbourne with cameraman Jacob Hersant and demanded to speak to someone from A Current Affair on March 1, 2021.

Sewell claimed a segment on the program showed his group to be terrorists and said he was not contacted for comment.

After staff declined to meet, Mr Hersant began filming Sewell inside the foyer, prompting the security guard to put his hand on the lens and tell the pair to stop filming.

The duo agreed to go outside but the guard followed them when they started filming near the door.

After they moved further away, the guard began making a dance-type motion to the camera, prompting Mr Hersant to taunt him, saying: "Dance monkey, dance."

The guard touched Mr Hersant's shoulder in an attempt to push him backwards before Sewell leapt in and began attacking him, punching him in the head six times.

The guard fell back and hit his head on concrete.

Mr Ballek previously described the punches as "brutal" and rejected Sewell's arguments of self-defence.

Sewell on Thursday said that while he would consent to a community corrections order, he believed a fine and a non-conviction order would be an appropriate sentence.

He asked the court to consider what "undue suffering" his sentence would inflict on his fiancee, who was 36 weeks' pregnant, as well as his employer.

Sewell told the court he was employed full-time as a labourer and apprentice. He previously served as a rifleman in the army and worked with disadvantaged youth. 

He also did health and fitness coaching for people in his direct "social and cultural" group, he said. 

Sewell pointed to his lack of criminal history, but acknowledged he was due to face a County Court trial in August and spent seven months on remand in solitary confinement because of that case.

Prosecutors are pushing for the 29-year-old to serve jail time, saying the attack was enough to terrify members of the public. 

The hearing continues.