Seriously? Theo Has Been Arrested, Charged and Remanded Over a Satirical Tweet

Sydney Criminal Lawyers received a text message on the evening of Monday, 26 January 2026, querying whether a linked article was referring to Theo: the Botany man at the centre of a disturbing 2024 incident involving a homemade bomb left in his carport that wasn’t taken seriously by authorities. And as it was him in the article, it seems the New South Wales Police Force has now taken his online post a bit too seriously.

According to the report, Theo has been in prison on remand since being arrested on Dharug and Gundungurra land in Valley Heights on the morning of Sunday, 25 January 2025, following his potentially illicit social media post on X. Theo wrote a number of satirical posts about “certain politicians” who’d just passed the Albanese government’s Combating Antisemitism Bill, of which the police allege are “menacing”.

Theo was taken to the Blue Mountains police station on 25 January and charged with one count of the federal offence of using a carriage service to menace, harass, or offend that carries up to three years prison, along with another count of inciting, urging, aiding or encouraging the commission of crimes, which can make a person liable to up to six months inside. Theo was also refused bail.

The social media user’s arrest over a post obviously meant to be in jest comes at the same time as there has been a rush to enact hate crimes federally post-Bondi, while in New South Wales, similar legislating occurred following a so-called antisemitic crimewave last summer. And Albanese’s hate crime laws have sparked fears about free speech, and Theo’s arrest is in keeping with this theme.

The news of Theo coming on Monday seemed ominous, especially as a quip he’d made about the legislated encroachments on free speech has apparently breached what is permissive to say online, while the threat of being arrested over something like an online post has been a major concern of people with the new laws, and in this vein, it might be that Theo is the first of many to fall.

The offending tweet

Theo’s alleged offending material appears to consist of two posts along the lines of: “I hereby pledge that: No person who after this date intentionally causes physical pain to any politician who voted Aye to the passage of the “Combatting Antisemitism” hate speech bill will pay for beer while in my informed presence. Please join me in this pledge.”

So, Theo has made light-hearted comments about his displeasure about the just passed laws within the Combating Antisemitism Bill in a manner that one would think could reasonably be understood to have been made in jest, and while there does appear to be something of an incitement in the in the message, even the wording of it appears comical in its approach.

Theo’s tone in the post is in keeping with his regular tone. Theo is often on social media platform X sharing information about matters with his followers. And Theo certainly takes his politics seriously.

That other matter

On 5 January 2024, Theo came across a homemade bomb sitting on the bonnet of his ute parked in the carport beside his home on Kameygal land in Botany. The device was made from a jerry can partly filled with petrol and a rag as a fuse, as well as having large bolts taped to its edges and a lighter attached, while a note was stuck to it reading, “Enough! Take down flag! One chance!!!”

This was clearly about the Palestinian flag that Theo had hanging out the front of his driveway, with an accompanying chalkboard stating his opposition to the unbridled killing in Gaza. It occurred in the early days of the ongoing Gaza genocide. The NSW police bomb squad attended his residence to examine the device, and they eventually deemed it safe after a number of hours at the scene.

Theo subsequently witnessed the downplaying of this crime. The definition of terrorism under the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) is an action or threat of action intended to advance a political, ideological or religious cause by coercing a government or intimidating the public.

Threatening to blow up someone with an actual combustible device if they don’t remove a flag showing the individual’s political support for a group does appear to fit this definition, so Theo thought it odd when the incident was not deemed a potential terrorism offence and wasn’t being investigated by the terror squad, but rather a junior constable had been placed in charge of the case.

Zionist man David Wise was later charged over the incident, but not until two months later, long after Theo had informed law enforcement that Wise had already visited his property prior to the bomb incident and had been complaining about his flying of the Palestinian flag.

Wise then pleaded guilty to one count of send article to cause alarm, two counts of stalk/intimate and another count of use carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence, and a final charge of unlawfully entering inclosed land. The Mascot construction boss was subsequently sentenced in May 2024 to 12 months inside, with a drastically low non-parole period of just 3 months.

Antisemites under the bed

For Theo, the downplaying of the seriousness of the combustible device in his carport, with a threat to return and kill him if he did not remove the Palestinian flag he’d positioned at the end of his driveway was confronting, as it appeared that someone in the community had threatened his life and yet, the major concern of the authorities appeared to be sweeping the matter under the table.

This incident concerning a Palestinian flag and a homemade bomb was one of the initial occurrences in the local public sphere happening as Israel began genociding the Palestinians in Gaza that no longer played out as one might have expected prior to the mass slaughter breaking out. Other early incidents included the ABC sacking of Antoinette Lattouf over a social media post in December 2023.

And these incidents that served to silence critics of the ongoing genocide in Gaza have further been accompanied by a McCarthyite witch hunt, whereby prominent cultural figures in Australia have been subjected to legal suits in which they’ve been charged over suggested antisemitic statements and behaviour that is critical of Israel but has nothing to do with prejudice towards Jewish people.

Appearing as an aberration initially, this shift towards taking down critics of Israel under guise of antisemitic charge was a development that might have been expected to subside. However, with the recent onslaught of combating antisemitism lawmaking and policy enactment over the 2025/26 summer break, the suggestion is this episode may have only just begun.

A GoFundMe is now underway to help cover Theo’s legal expenses.

Main photo: Theo, outside Sydney Downing Centre in March 2024. Photo credit: Still from footage of interview with Theo conducted by journalist Serkan Öztürk @SerkanTheWriter