In November 2024, Patrick Mellor appeared in the Hobart Magistrates court charged with assault after cutting the rope that Helena Griffiths was attached to, in a tree-sit high above a logging machine. He pleaded not guilty earlier this year but was found guilty of the assault last month.
Helena Griffiths was protesting in the swift parrot breeding forest in Southern Tasmania in May 2023 when logging forest contractor, 33 year old Patrick Mellor, committed the offence. He pleaded not guilty even though the incident was captured on camera. He will be sentenced for his crime on March 3rd 2025.
video of assault <no longer available>
In my opinion this was attempted murder. Mellor has a support page for fellow loggers to pay for his legal fees and fines. Why anybody would be supportive of somebody who commits assault makes me incredibly sad about humanity.
The Bob Brown Foundation protest where Helena Griffiths was peacefully attending was located where swift parrots have been documented breeding. Other forest protesters have also been arrested in the same forest this year protesting the logging of swift parrot breeding areas.
Patrick Mellor cut right through Helena's rope even though he was told Helena's life was on the line. The Hobart Magistrates Court heard Griffith's terror when in a video played to the court, Griffiths could be heard screaming at the worker after her rope was cut.
It is not often that loggers are charged for their offences against protesters. But the real issue is the ongoing assault on Tasmania's remaining native forests by Forestry Tasmania. They are also guilty of assault.
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