Real voices, real stories

Transcription - Ollie

(young man walks into a field in the dark and looks up at the sky)

Ollie voice over: I didn't know if they're going to arrest me on the spot, I didn't know if my whole life was gone. That was definitely the worst feeling in my life.

Text on moving image: ESP SPOTLIGHT: OLLIE

Text on black slide: Ollie became vulnerable to violent extremism during COVID-19. This is his story.

(montage of Ollie by the fireplace, looking up at the sky, hands scrolling on a mobile phone, hands on a keyboard and back of head with gaming headset)

Ollie voice over: I was in high school, I was studying, I’d just moved schools. I was on the school rugby team. Had a lot of friends.

In 2020 that's when Covid started. I was definitely feeling resentful. My dad had become redundant at work.

And that meant my family was getting no money. And yeah, it's just really stressful time at home. I was stuck on the internet. I didn't have much to do.

I was spending a lot of my time on Discord, it was becoming more and more extreme, and then it moved into more of a community kind of thing rather than just looking at memes.

And once I got involved in the community, it's where things became more radical. I've certainly always been more right wing.

However, it just got way blown out of proportion. I felt like I lost control. I found the power and the attention addictive.

I found a community of people online who are equally as resentful to the system for their own reasons. And then when the second lockdown started, I found the Foodists and it got a lot more crazy. I got a lot more involved. This time I got more resentful.

I got very angry and I didn't care anymore. I was 16 years old, 15 years old. My brain was still developing. I was not fully aware of the outcomes that occured from it. I didn't know how severe they went, and I did not know how seriously it gets taken.

Text on black slide: Ollie never understood the seriousness of his activity online until law enforcement knocked on his door

(montage of Ollie sitting by the fire over shoulder shot, Ollie loading wood on the fire)

Ollie voice over: I woke up early for school one morning. I had an extension maths class early, was having a shower and I saw three people right in front of me, I didn't know what was happening. I was very scared and they told me to go to my room and put clothes on.

I followed the police to where my dad was at the table. They started showing me the court order they had to seize my devices. And, while I just sat there and didn't know what to do. It lasted from about 730 in the morning all the way to about 5 p.m., they were in my house.

My family was probably the part the made me the saddest for them to have to have police in the house. That was definitely the worst feeling in my life.

(montage of white truck driving at dusk, hand on steering wheel, over shoulder shot of fire, opening bonnet of car and tinkering with engine, walking inside a house, hands playing chess by the fire, walking outside in dark and looking up at sky)

Ollie voice over: I joined the program, as was recommended by the police who came to my door. the ESP were able to help me calm down. They were able to offer me services I needed being able to talk to someone about it, because in the few months between November when they came to my door and when I joined the program about January February, I had no one to talk to you. And it was a very, very stressful time for me. I was able to develop some coping skills for a lot of the stress also. And I developed resilience.

And that allowed me with new coping skills, to go make some friends. I was able to then go find and people I really do like going camping with my friends. I've been doing some parts of a real life. We help each other build our cars.

I was able to yeah, find a good job I got an opportunity to be promoted and I really enjoyed that. The ESP were able to help me with my parents. I would have struggled a lot more with them.

Thanks to the ESP They changed my life.

Any political community which is negative, it's just terrible for your health. It just dramatically effects the way you see the world. It affects everything you do. And yeah, it's just important that you stay positive, do things which help you and don't spend all day online.

It's not healthy. They need to stop. Even if they feel that they can’t stop. They need to stop and they need to reach out for help. If they can't, that need to be taught how permanent things are online.

It's better to get help than someone having to help you get out of prison or get out of a court case. I don't think it would have made the same progress without the ESP

And because of the knowledge I’ve learned throughout the ESP I certainly would recommend it to people who are in dark communities and having a really tough time.

I would certainly recommend the ESP as it has helped me, and I came from a pretty rough situation. I was able to come back into society. I think it's really important that everyone has a chance to do it before it’s too late.

Text on black slide: Contact ESP on: 1800 203 966

esp@dcj.nsw.gov.au  

End of transcript.