"He is nothing but a fly I keep swatting away," Nathan Jacob Sykes said during his cross-examination in the NSW District Court in Sydney on Thursday.
The 53-year-old Sydney man has pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to threaten serious harm to Melbourne freelance investigative journalist Luke McMahon and to using it to menace/harass/offend in 2018.
Sykes, who said he had been involved with the Australia First Party since 2014, previously testified to having no memory of threatening Mr McMahon.
At that time he said he had panic attacks, a heavy study workload and felt he was in "extreme danger" after another man made a "throat-slitting gesture" outside his home and called him a Nazi.
At his resumed sentence hearing on Thursday, Sykes said Mr McMahon had been "harassing" him for years and had threatened him.
Asked if he blamed Mr McMahon for his offending, Sykes said he blamed the situation on the "state apparatus" after police did not investigate Sykes' complaints about the journalist.
Asked if he thought Mr McMahon deserved the offending, he replied "he encouraged it, he did invite it".
While he said he was not contending that Mr McMahon was linked to the throat-slitting incident, "it would not surprise me".
Sykes agreed a message he sent to Mr McMahon saying "expect a surprise" referred to a proposed visit to his unit and that he sent another one which included pity you weren't home".
Australia First president James Saleam gave evidence that he went to Mr McMahon's Melbourne residence in March 2018 with another person who had a video camera, but no one answered the door.
"I intended to speak with Mr McMahon to get a few comments that would be part of an item I intended to publish on YouTube," he said.
He said he left a business card in the letterbox, saying "best wishes to you and your journalistic fabrications".
He denied the purpose of the visit had been to intimidate.
Sykes repeated earlier evidence that he wouldn't be involved again in similar offences as "I have no intention of ever falling into that trap".
The prosecutor submitted that Sykes used the court proceedings "to air his grievances against the victim and NSW police" .
His evidence that the victim had invited the conduct and the trap comment indicated a "very significant lack of insight" and remorse, she said.
"It seems he has blamed everyone else for his problems."
The judge couldn't be confident Sykes would not re-offend when confronted with opposing political beliefs again.
Sykes' barrister urged the judge not to impose a full-time custodial sentence, submitting the offending was at the lower end of seriousness for such charges.
While the barrister said he was not attacking the victim, who had not been charged with anything, he said the offences had been put in a context to explain his client's state of mind at the time.
Judge Gina O'Rourke will sentence Sykes on April 1.
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