At the beginning of this year, Sydney labourer Zane Alchin changed to a surprise plea of ‘not guilty’ to menacing and harassing by means of a carriage service.
Today, he changed his mind.
If you don’t have the memory of an elephant (this has been going on since August last year), Zane unleashed a torrent of abuse on a group of women for defending a friend. The friend in question’s Tinder profile was being publicly mocked because she had included the Drake lyrics ‘Type of girl to suck you dry then eat some lunch with you’.
After this incident, several of the women joined together to form protest group Sexual Violence Won’t Be Silenced.
Alchin is being accused of posting lengthy derisive comments towards the women, which included saying “your [sic] all basic fucking sluts”, and also explaining what “the best thing about raping feminists” was.
Altogether, he made 55 comments during the incident, which he has now stated were made because he was drunk, and because he didn’t know that ‘trolling’ was a crime. Court documents showed he told police, “he was drunk at the time and the comments do not represent what he is about”.
He today dropped the case, and changed his plea to ‘guilty’.
SVWBS spokesperson Paloma Brierley Newton said this about Alchin’s decision:
“We’re extremely pleased that Mr Alchin has plead guilty, despite previous indications he wouldn’t.This result demonstrates that there is a precedent in Australian law that says this behaviour is unacceptable. It means that harassing women online is not only legally reprehensible, but socially and morally as well.Our victory today sends a message to all women that they don’t have to put up with harassment online; that there are steps and channels they can take, and that Australian law is on their side.”
The group now says they will turn their sights on better training for police and law enforcement, to enable them to better assist victim’s of abuse or harassment ‘appropriately, and with tact’.
Zane Alchin is due to be sentenced on July 29 this year.
Source: Supplied.
Photo: SVWBS.
