The logo on the official-looking letter was unfamiliar, but even before opening it, Scott Murrin knew who it came from.
Beneath a motto that read “do no harm”, the “warrant” demanded he surrender his two sons to “court sheriffs” and submit himself for arrest.
A failure to comply, it read, would result in life imprisonment with “hard labour”.
The document was sent to Mr Murrin in March by a group calling itself Nmdaka Dalai Australis (NDA), a radical anti-government organisation that is aligned with the sovereign citizen movement.
Sovereign citizens oppose the government, viewing it as illegitimate and having no authority over them.
NDA was co-founded by Mr Murrin’s former partner Helen Delaney, who attracted national attention last year when a video went viral showing a NSW Police officer ripping out her car window to arrest her, as she voiced baseless* claims about why she and her companion were exempt from the law.
Ms Delaney lost custody of her children in 2022 and Mr Murrin says NDA is her latest attempt to take back their two sons by force, accusing her and her anti-government allies of making his family’s life “pure hell”.
Mr Murrin and his sons are far from the only ones to have been impacted by the group, that claims its own court, administered by its members who wear a uniform and call themselves “sheriffs”.
An ABC Investigation has uncovered how the group is using its “court” to justify the kidnap* of children involved in Family Court matters.
Many sovereign citizens espouse unfounded* beliefs that the country’s legal institutions are facilitating child trafficking.
Legal and extremism experts told the ABC the group’s activities were part of an alarming escalation of the sovereign citizen movement from public nuisance to dangerous menace.
Mr Murrin’s ordeal is not an isolated case — Ms Delaney has claimed the group is involved in more than a dozen Family Court matters across Australia, and ABC Investigations has confirmed that the spouse of a senior NDA figure has been charged in connection with an alleged child kidnapping case.
In Facebook posts seen by ABC Investigations, the alleged kidnapper said they took the child because they believed they were a victim of a child abuse ring.
Since becoming active in December last year, NDA claims to have grown to 150 members.
[Ed: * as alleged by ABC ]
Source: A sovereign citizen group is using a fake court to justify child kidnapping and extortion – ABC News