Articles by Liam Beatty

‘Hateful, racist’: Man’s threat to Fatima Payman

Sean Sharman, 52 of Ballarat, appeared in the Ballarat Magistrates’ Court on Monday afternoon where he avoided jail after pleading guilty to using a carriage service to threaten to kill Ms Payman. Handing down the sentence, magistrate Julia Barling said she had wrestled with the question on whether it was appropriate to read out in court what he had sent on March 27 this year. “I’m not going to repeat the contents of that email because it is so offensive, it is disgusting,” she said. Through his lawyer, Sharman said he did not remember sending the email and was drinking “24 cans of beer daily at the time” but accepted responsibility. Ms Barling described Sharman’s email to Ms Payman as “hateful” and “racist”, noting the senator had provided a statement to the court to send “a message to the community about the serious impact this behaviour has on public figures”. She told the court the threats had a significant impact on Ms Payman’s emotional and mental wellbeing after reading the Islamophobic and xenophobic comments directed at her. “The words left me feeling scared and deeply unsettled,” Ms Payman wrote. “It was a personal attack and an attempt to intimidate me in the role I hold for Western Australia and Muslim women.” Ms Barling said Sharman was going through a “particularly difficult time” in his mental health when he sent the email and suffered from complex PTSD. “The fact is you then transferred your trauma onto another person with whom you had no contact, no personal relationship, no reason to have contact with other than to berate, threaten, insult and intimidate,” the magistrate said. Ms Barling said it was concerning that, as a resident of regional Victoria, Sharman had targeted Ms Payman “clearly” due to her gender, race and religion. “This is someone that doesn’t have any impact on your day to day life … aside from the fact she is a Muslim woman and a person that fit the type,” she said. She described Sharman as a “keyboard warrior”, saying that from what she understood of him, she was confident he would never have said what he said to Ms Payman face-to-face. In a “bizarre” turn of events, two minutes after sending the initial email, Sharman followed up with a second listing out his full name, address and telephone number. He later told police he’d done this “maybe to show her you were a real person and not a bot”, Ms Barling said. The magistrate said since sending the threats Sharman had been consistently receiving mental health treatment. She told the court it was important to note he had no prior convictions, noting that if he had, she “would have been minded to sentence you to a jail term today”. Sharman was placed on a 18-month community corrections order, with conditions to engage in treatment and courses to address his alcohol abuse and dependency, mental health and risk of reoffending. “You are being given an opportunity to engage with support services,” Ms Barling said.

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Articles by Liam Beatty

‘Hateful, racist’: Man’s threat to Fatima Payman

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