A man who obeyed overseas masterminds to orchestrate an antisemitic spree which rocked Sydney has been jailed, with a judge rejecting his claim that he was motivated by crippling drug debt, and finding that he knew it was a “deliberate tactic to divide Arab and Jewish communities”.
Nicholas James Alexander was sentenced to up to five years’ jail with a non-parole period of three years and four months on Wednesday for directing the firebombing of a Maroubra childcare centre, torching of a prominent Jewish leader’s former house and defacing of a Newtown synagogue early last year. Several other homes and cars were also damaged.
The 32-year-old told the court he was motivated by drug addiction, but Magistrate Jennifer Atkinson found he was told to say this and that he told his co-accused to say the same. She found he was motivated by financial gain as opposed to racial hatred, but was not in financial trouble as he owned expensive cars and paid his co-offenders partly with his own money.
Alexander ordered his co-accused – including Leon Emmanuel Sofilas and Adam Edward Moule – to take part in the attacks and load vans with firebombing and spray-painting tools.
While Alexander sat above the other local offenders in the chain of command during the January 2025 rampage, Downing Centre Local Court heard he acted at the behest of mysterious overseas actors.
The magistrate accepted Alexander was not motivated “by a particular racial hatred”, but it “was clear from messages [sent with his co-accused] that they knew preparations … were part of organised criminal activity that targeted the Sydney Jewish community with arson attacks and was a deliberate tactic to divide Arab and Jewish communities”.
Among the targets was the former eastern suburbs home of Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin. The Dover Heights house was splashed with red paint, while two cars were firebombed and daubed with anti-Jewish slurs.
Surveying the damage at the time, Rychin warned journalists of “an evil at work in this country”.
“It shows that we’re in a very dangerous state, and it’s not a long step from what we’re seeing here to people being personally targeted and people being killed,” he said.
The Only About Children childcare centre was set alight and graffitied with antisemitic smears, while Newtown Synagogue was defaced with Swastikas and ignited with a small fire.
Atkinson read out part of a letter tendered to court in which Alexander described having “no ill will to the Jewish community” but felt he “had no choice but to take what was offered in front of me” by the overseas overlords to pay off drug debt.
“I must admit, I am a drug addict; that is not an excuse, but a realisation and a problem I need to fix in my own life,” the letter read.
“I can’t hide behind this, not any more. It was the problem that led me to being before you”.
Atkinson accepted Alexander had shown remorse for the Jewish community but rejected the evidence in the letter. She found Alexander directed his co-accused to delete messages and change phones, as well as passed on messages from the foreign actors of what to say if they got caught.
She said the pain caused to the Jewish community “compounded day by day”, adding people should have felt safe in their homes, places of worship and streets.
“They did not know what would come next,” she said.
“These events were also an attack on Australian society generally … they were intended to divide our community. None of this is acceptable and must be strongly denounced.”
The masterminds’ origins were not specified. However, authorities have previously warned about the concerning role of foreign players uncovered in antisemitism investigations.
In August, the federal government and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) confirmed that the Iranian government ordered the October 2024 attacks on a Sydney kosher kitchen and a Melbourne synagogue.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said there was a “layer cake of cutouts” between the IRGC and alleged offenders carrying out attacks in Australia.
“In between them, they tap into a number of people,” Burgess said.
“Agents of IRGC and people that they know in the criminal world and work through there so it’s this … chain.”
There is no suggestion the Iranian government was involved in the January 2025 spree.
At the time, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the attacks to ABC Radio National as an “outrage” that goes “against everything that we stand for”.
Meanwhile, Premier Chris Minns told the media he “never thought [he] would see this kind of naked racism and antisemitism repeating itself on the streets of Sydney in such an organised, horrifying manner”.
Alexander pleaded guilty to directing a criminal group, two counts of being an accessory to more than $5000 worth of property damage by fire, and four counts of accessory to damaging property worth $2000-$5000.
Four similar charges were earlier withdrawn.
Late last year, Sofilas was sentenced to 20 months with an eight-month non-parole period for destroying property by fire, displaying public Nazi symbols, being an accessory to property damage, and possessing an unregistered firearm.
Moule was sentenced to seven months’ jail for participating in a criminal group and destroying property by fire, with non-parole period of five months.
During Moule’s and Sofilas’ proceedings, the court heard they were not motivated by hatred or religious beliefs, but were merely following instructions from other people to cash in cheques.
As well as attacking the Newtown synagogue, the neighbours left a van containing fire extinguishers filled with red paint to be collected by people who used them to spray paint “f— Jews” on property in Queens Park.
The court was told the pair did not know what the gear in the van would be used for, which included the childcare centre firebombing.
Their offending was likened to a person receiving directions through service platforms like Uber or Airtasker.
Upon learning of the financial motives, Ryvchin told journalists that the impact was no less severe.
In response to the rising antisemitism threat, the NSW parliament has passed new hate speech and protest laws which included the banning of Nazi symbol displays on or near religious sites and a new aggravated offence for graffiting a place of worship.
Laws were strengthened following the December Bondi Beach massacre, including allowing the banning of hate groups, increased penalties for so-called hate preachers who advocate or threaten violence, and making it easier to revoke or refuse Australian visas for people with extremist views.
Be the first to know when major news happens. Sign up for breaking news alerts on email or turn on notifications in the app.