Dezi Freeman: Alleged Porepunkah cop killer's issues with authority laid bare

A man wanted for murdering two police and wounding a third has a lengthy history of issues with authority, calling police “terrorist thugs” in court and trying to arrest a magistrate.

Dezi Freeman, 56, known for having views consistent with the sovereign citizen movement, has been identified as the man on the run over a police ambush in Victoria’s rural northeast on Tuesday.

In October last year, Freeman launched a Supreme Court case over three driving convictions in 2020, for speeding, using a phone while driving and refusing to give an oral fluid sample for testing.

He originally appealed to the County Court, where he was acquitted of the speeding charge but remained convicted over the other two offences, and then asked for the higher court to review the decision.

“He gave evidence that he was a safe driver with an excellent driving record, he had had a difficult childhood, had overcome disadvantage, and had a history of unpleasant encounters with police officers,” Freeman told the Supreme Court, in his application for judicial review.

“Mr Freeman referred to the police in his evidence as ‘frigging Nazis’, ‘Gestapo’ and ‘terrorist thugs’.”

He claimed “the absolute heart of his case” was he was acting in self-defence or was under duress when he drove away from police, while holding up his phone to film them.

“I state that I was under extreme duress. You’ve seen the video. You’ve seen my demeanour,” he told the court.

“I had to, like, get myself and my kids out of there and hope I wasn’t ... gonna get chased by (the informant) or shot at or whatever else unknown.

“I felt threatened and preyed upon .... even the sight of a cop or a cop car ... it’s like an Auschwitz survivor seeing a Nazi soldier.”

Justice James Gorton found Freeman had no prospects of success and dismissed his application, in November 2024.

Freeman reportedly yelled “shame on you” at the judge.

He also previously tried to arrest a Wangaratta magistrate and police members in court.

Speaking on The Bloody Aussie Battler podcast in 2019, Freeman said he told the magistrate he did not have “grant of power” or authority to hear his case.

Freeman was arrested during a protest outside Myrtleford Magistrates Court in 2021, before a private prosecution against former premier Daniel Andrews was heard.

The prosecution alleged Mr Andrews had been “concealing an overt act of treason”, but it was struck out.

Footage of the arrest shows Freeman lying on the ground outside court, with several officers holding him down.

“Defend me guys, we outnumber these scum … help defend against their terrorist criminal filth,” he yelled to protesters surrounding him as police escorted him away.

Freeman remains on the run after the police shooting in Porepunkah on Tuesday and is believed to be heavily armed.