A Perth man, who was a FIFO worker, and found himself entangled in a nasty Australian neo-Nazi web, was murdered while sleeping in his bed before he could extricate himself from the far-right hate groups which had insinuated themselves into his house and his life.
Alan George Taylor, 42, was bludgeoned to death with a claw hammer while he slept at his home in Arnos Way in the northern Perth suburb of Girrawheen in April 2016.
Four people – Robert Wayne Edhouse, Corey Joshua Dymock, Melony Attwood and a minor – were originally charged over Mr Taylor’s murder. The un-named minor involved has already faced trial and been convicted after he admitted his part in the murder. The other three however are currently facing trial in a Perth court.
All of the co-accused are self-proclaimed neo-Nazis and fascists. However, friends of the victim say Mr Taylor himself was not a Nazi and was in fact planning to start a new life before he was killed.
Mr Edhouse is the president of the Perth chapter of the far-right neo-Nazi group Aryan Nation. Mr Dymock was the group’s sergeant-at-arms, while Melony Attwood was the leader of the female branch known as the Aryan Girls.
Ms Attwood, 38, was Mr Taylor’s partner but was conducting an affair with Robert Edhouse, 22, at the time of Mr Taylor’s brutal murder. It has been established by the Court that all the accused were living in Mr Taylor’s house at the time.
The girlfriend of Mr Dymock, Skye Elizabeth Dunn, 19, had previously plead guilty to accessory to murder, after the group had bragged to her of the crime.
Ms Dunn, who had initially lied on behalf of her boyfriend, had given testimony at her earlier Court hearing, in August, that after turning on loud music to mask any sound, all four of the group accused had taken turns bashing Mr Taylor with the hammer, before ransacking the house to make it look like a burglary gone wrong.
On Tuesday, February 27, in the WA Supreme Court Robert Edhouse claimed that it was the previously convicted un-named minor who had smashed Mr Taylor’s head in with a hammer.
Mr Edhouse claimed the youth was angry at Mr Taylor for wanting to evict him. The self-identifying Nazi says he was an eyewitness to the murder but told the Court: “I was too much of a soft cock, too weak to do anything, I was frozen in disbelief”.
However the prosecution alleged in Court that the group of four had brainstormed how to avoid detection, including setting fire to the house. The group also went to the cinema to try and establish an alibi, and Ms Attwood is alleged to have bragged that she was in line to claim Mr Taylor’s life insurance which she thought was worth $1 million.
Ms Dunn’s previous testimony at her hearing suggested the motivation for the murder was the money from the insurance policy.
Friends of Mr Taylor have taken to social media this week to explain the FIFO worker was not a Neo-Nazi but was a former drug addict trying to turn his life around.
“He wasn’t a Nazi, he was just an ordinary fella who made mistakes like we all do,” one friend said.
Another friend who knew Mr Taylor’s family well said the murder victim was planning to leave Ms Attwood and take his son away from the house.
“I just want everyone to know he wasn’t a racist or a Nazi,” the family friend said.
“Alan had a rough time in the years before … he struggled with and beat addiction. No matter how bad his addiction got, he always worked his arse off and once he got clean, that hard work earned him big money.
“His plan was to leave her and take his young boy to be raised by him, his brother and his wife, and his parents. That fucking vermin made the boy an orphan.”
The Perth house where Mr Taylor’s murder took place has been regarded as a base of sorts for fascists when visiting Western Australia.
In November 2015, the convicted Melbourne racist Blair Cottrell and six other members of the United Patriots Front made a video in the backyard of the same house where Mr Taylor was sadistically butchered to announce the impending launch of Cottrell’s political party Fortitude, which was named after the failed Peter Dutton-inspired Border Force citizenship checking operation planned for Melbourne in August 2015.
SUPPORT OUR INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
Be the first to comment