Charges against three protesters for offensive language for telling notoriously conservative Christian Democrat Fred Nile to “fuck off” have been dropped, with a judge ruling that such language is part of the everyday Aussie vernacular.
Cat Rose, Patrick Wright and April Holcombe were filmed chanting “fuck off” and “fuck off Fred Nile” through a loudspeaker at a protest for marriage equality in September 2015.
Rose and Wright were fined on the spot, and Holcombe tracked down by the fuzz days later
“I was called 48 hours after the protest to be told that I had sworn, that this was on police footage, and that my $500 fine was in the mail,” Holcombe told Alice Workman.
However a judge threw out the charges this week, declaring that “fuck” is these days an inoffensive and common word, illustrated by the existence of phrases like “you fuckin’ beauty”.
You fuckin’ beauty.
