Legacy of Hate

On December 3rd 2022, the National Socialist Network (NSN)/European Australian Movement (EAM) held a Mixed Martial Arts event at an undisclosed location. In advertising for the event, they said that it would take place in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne.

The Age newspaper today disclosed the location of this event. We provide the following information for the benefit of parents whose children attend this gym.

On December 11, the EAM Telegram channel posted a photo from the event. It depicted 47 people in an industrial gym setting with EAM and swastika flags hanging from the walls. Most of the people in the photo had their faces blurred in addition to wearing face coverings. For some reason, it seemed a few remained unsure about the quality of the NSN's opsec.

A group photo taken from above of 47 white men in a gym wearing black EAM shirts, or shirtless. A young child in a balaclava stands at the front nest to Jim Roberts, who has a large swastika tattoo on his breast.

The gym in the photograph was very quickly identified by a number of anti-fascist researchers as belonging to Legacy Boxing Gym, and located in Sunshine West.

At first glance, you might assume that the space had been rented without the owners being aware of who they were allowing in – a common tactic for the far-Right. After all, who would knowingly welcome a motley crew of racists, incels and thugs into their business?

In this case, that would be Timothy Lutze – one of the owners of Legacy Boxing, an active participant in this neo-Nazi event, and someone who has previously used their child as a prop in neo-Nazi propaganda.

Across the social profiles of Legacy Boxing and its owners, we found numerous examples of Timothy Lutze giving a friendly wave to the camera, and encouraging the young men in his care to do the same.

A group photo in a smaller room of three adults and three youths, where an adult - Timothy - and the young guy next to him are giving stiff-armed salutes. The youths' faces are blurred and the adults are all smiling. The photo is part of a post from an anonymised Facebook profile, from 9 July 2021.

Another group photo with two adults and the same three youths. All three youths and Timothy are giving stiff-armed salutes. Again, the adults are smiling and the youths' faces are blurred. The photo is part of a screenshot of Legacy Boxing Gym's Facebook post from 10 July 2021. Someone commented, Johnny choose not to wave to the camera, two laughing emojis.

A domestic scene. A woman, a teenage boy with his face blurred, and an older man stand in the foreground. The teenage boy is holding a baking dish with the remnants of bacon and eggs. In the background, Timothy Lutze gives a stiff-armed salute.

It's not a crime to be friendly, but then we noticed that tattoos in these photos matched those of a man Sieg Heiling in a photo previously released by the EAM. He stands in the centre of the photo behind a young boy.

A group photo at a public children's playground. It shows mostly fairly young white men, including one man with arm tattoos sieg heiling along with a young child who stands in front of him, as well as Jimeone Roberts, who has a shirt on this time and stands beside them. Most faces are blurred but a few aren't, including Roberts and Tom Sewell.

We saw these tattoos again in a photo posted to a neo-Nazi chat run by former Young Liberal Stephen Eracleous.

The photo – posted by a user with the handle @legacyboxing and using the name Rebecca – shows a young child Sieg Heiling at Movie World on the Gold Coast.

A screenshot from the telegram chat Australian Meditations Nationalist Yarn. Rebecca has sent a photo of two adults and two children all with faces whited out, riding a ghost train style ride. The young girl is sieg heiling. Behind her you can see Timothy Lutze's distinctive arm tattoos as he braces against the scary ride. Rebecca has captioned it, My daughter today at movie world. 1488. Someone responds by circling a goblin above the car and asks, Why didn't you blur out this Jews face, with two laugh reacts. Rebecca responds, Hahaha my bad they are always going after children... Hansel and Gretel. Someone called Michael also responds, Hahahah.

A few days prior to this Movie World adventure, @legacyboxing/Rebecca had posted: “Just attended the karate nationals in Rockhampton alot of white power. Alot boomer with half Asian kids too.”

A screenshot of the above-mentioned text in a message from Rebecca in the Australian Meditations Nationalist Yarn telegram chat.

We have confirmed that Timothy Lutze and his partner Rebecca Morris (formerly Rebecca Michael) both attended the Karate Nationals in Rockhampton.

Finally, Timothy Lutze's distinctive sleeve tattoos could be seen throughout a video released by the NSN celebrating the event – and in one frame, his distinctive face.

A frame from the NSN promotional video of a fight at the gym. Most people's faces are blurred, but Timothy's face escapes the blur in this frame, and his arm tattoos are once again visible.

Sport should be a healthy and supportive culture for young athletes and it’s important to keep these spaces free of extremism so children and teens of all backgrounds can participate. We commend Boxing Victoria for deregistering Legacy Boxing Gym and suspending the registration of all coaches involved with the gym pending an investigation of the allegations in January 2023.

We've linked some resources below to help parents and caregivers grappling with issues of youth radicalisation or those who want to be vigilant about protecting their children. Fascists and neo-Nazis actively groom increasingly younger children into cultures of hatred in order to recruit them for offline groups.