A man who tried to influence Australian election results by sending millions of spam emails — which included claims about the spread of AIDS and the rape of children — was suffering from mental illness, a court has heard.
Cheng Fan, 34, first came to Australian Federal Police attention after a series of derogatory emails were sent about Dr Kerryn Phelps in 2018, when she was contesting a by-election for the federal seat of Wentworth in Sydney’s east.
The emails, sent using fake aliases, urged constituents to vote for Liberal candidate Dave Sharma and falsely stated Dr Phelps had pulled out of the election race because she was diagnosed with HIV.
Dr Phelps narrowly won the by-election, but in the federal election the following year, she lost to Mr Sharma after Fan sxjmtzywent more homophobic and racist emails which wrongly suggested Mr Sharma would stop same-sex couples from adopting children.
The emails also falsely claimed Dr Phelps was disqualified from the election and ranted about “her fellow unvaccinated Jews spreading measles across country” and for her “fellow LGBT spreading AIDS across the country”.
“When Dave Sharma is elected we can all put swastikas up everywhere and celebrate legally,” Fan wrote in another email.
“Seeing swastikas everywhere in Wentworth, Jews and gays will behave themselves … Kerryn Phelps is accomplice to child raping and she belongs in jail,” Fan wrote.
Fan found a new target in 2020, when a by-election campaign was underway in the southern NSW federal seat of Eden-Monaro.
“Kristy McBain, that crazy bitch running for Eden-Monaro, was tested positive for Covid-19 today, it happened just now in our clinic,” Fan wrote in one of the emails about the Labor candidate who went on to win the seat.
In another email, Fan said McBain’s neighbours heard “kids crying for help from the basement” of her home.
“And they think they saw some men coming out of her house,” Fan wrote under an alias.
“If McBain got elected, God will unleash the Covid plague and the bushfire in the area again! You will lose your home and family.”
Fan sent almost 24 million emails to voters in the Eden-Monaro by-election, with about one million reaching inboxes and the rest stopped by spam or sent to invalid accounts.
Appalled by what was unfolding, Mr Sharma enlisted a cyber security specialist to help identify the source of the emails and AFP officers arrested Fan in July 2020 at his Blacktown home.
Fan appeared in the NSW District Court at Penrith on Monday after he pleaded guilty to charges of releasing misleading and deceptive matter in an election period, using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend and multiple counts of dealing in identification information and using it to commit fraud.
During a sentencing hearing, psychiatrist Olav Nielssen said Fan suffered from “delusional beliefs”.
“The offending appears to have been motivated by symptoms of schizophrenia,” Dr Nielssen told the court.
Psychologist Jianqiu Xu said she believed Fan had post traumatic disorder and the court heard he had been sexually abused in the past.
“I still firmly believe he has psychotic symptoms and delusional disorders and I believe it’s a lifelong condition.”
The Crown prosecutor said Fan had an “alleged mental condition” based on self-reporting.
“The reference from his wife suggests that she observed no issues whatsoever,” the prosecutor said.
“The offender seems to be a highly intelligent individual … the offending was planned, highly sophisticated and complex.”
Fan told the author of a sentencing assessment report he wanted to influence voters, the court heard.
According to court documents, police found Fan had passport details belonging to several Indian, Pakistani and Australian residents as well as details from multiple drivers’ licences obtained through false job advertisements online.
Judge Karen Robinson reserved her decision to determine if a jail sentence should be served in the community or behind bars.
