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Disgraced former soap actor Damien Richardson has been ordered to visit a Holocaust museum after he claimed a Nazi salute was a ‘satirical gesture’.
The ex-Neighbours star was caught on camera making the gesture on stage at a National Workers’ Alliance (NWA) event in 2024 -a year after it was made illegal in Victoria, Australia.
The group, which the actor set up, seeks to stop immigration and preserve Western culture and has links to alleged far-right, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi identities.
The salute was streamed on Facebook where he told a crowd: ‘There is a war on men.’
‘I thought it was a war on Western tradition, Western values… and actually, it’s an anti-white-male-agenda.’
He then made the gesture before adding: ‘Am I gonna be fined now? I’m gonna go to jail for five years? Richardson did the salute?’
‘I mean, really? I mean, this is absurd. This is insane.
‘It’s crazy. It’s so crazy you can’t believe it’s even happening.’
The 57-year-old was flanked by supporters as he arrived at court.
‘I have been convicted of making a gesture, which is political satire, and this is the state of Victoria in 2026,’ he said.
Inside, Judge Kate Hawkins told him ‘whether or not you hold any sympathy with Nazi ideology is irrelevant.’
‘It’s important to send a clear message to the community that the performance of the gesture is offensive, harmful and against the law,’ she said.
He avoided jail but was ordered to carry out a year-long community corrections stint and 100 hours of unpaid community work.
He has also ordered to visit the Melbourne Holocaust Museum in Elsternwick.
‘It’s a satirical comment, so that’s really all I’ve got to say,’ Richardson said as he left court.
Richardson played Gary Canning on the Australian soap for six years between 2014 and 2020.
During the COVID-19 pandemic he quit acting to launch a campaign against vaccinations, and was part of a protest in Melbourne against them in 2021.
He later made a failed bid to be an independent candidate on the Australian Senate.