A New Zealand man has been remanded in custody after he was accused of possessing violent extremist material - including videos of violent killings and videos about manufacturing homemade explosives – on his phone when he entered Australia.
And the arrest has led to one security expert’s warning that young white men are the most vulnerable to online radicalisation through extremist content.
Brendan Donald Mcleod, 24, appeared in court in Perth yesterday after being stopped on Monday and told his bags and devices would be checked when he flew into Perth airport from overseas.
The search by Australian Border Force officers led to material being found on his phone that officials have described as “suspicious”.
That search led to the border officials calling on Australian Federal Police, sparking a counter-terrorism investigation and a raid at an address in central Perth.
West Australian court records showed Mcleod appeared by video link in the magistrates’ court in Perth, where he was charged with possessing “violent extremist material” that he held in an electronic form that had been obtained over the internet.
Under Australia’s law, the charge alleges possession of digital content that advocates serious violence in the cause of extremist ideologies. The charge was one of possession and does not allege a planned attack.
The court hearing involved no application for bail and Mcleod was remanded in custody until March 20.
He was represented by Dr Neville Barber, an experienced West Australia lawyer who has worked both as state prosecutor and as president of the Mental Health Review Board of Western Australia.
Mcleod is alleged to have been travelling into Australia when he was stopped for a border check at which officials sought access to his devices.
It mirrors the scenario in which shamed business tycoon Ron Brierley’s devices were successfully searched for child sexual imagery in 2020, with border officials having broad powers to access people’s devices once they land, or are airside before takeoff.
Investigators alleged the phone showed violent extremist material had been accessed online, including footage of killings overseas linked to different ideologies.
They also alleged the phone showed access to videos about manufacturing homemade explosives.
Officers later executed a search warrant at a Perth central city property and seized a computer.
The Western Australia Joint Counter Terrorism Team launched an investigation with a computer seized from a central Perth address ahead of the court appearance. The team includes federal and local police, and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
Federal police commander Nick Read said “young or vulnerable people” were particular targets of terrorist organisations seeking to radicalise others through violent extremist material.
“There is no place in Australian society for violent or extremist content,” he said.
Global Risk Consulting director Chris Kumeroa – a counter-terrorism specialist – believes it was “highly unlikely” that the search of the man was random.
He speculated it was probable the man was “already in the system”, with security officials likely in receipt of information showing he had accessed the material.
He said Australian officials had stepped up efforts to identify and counter violent extremism since the December 2025 Bondi Beach terror attack.
Kumeroa cautioned that it was unknown what material the man was accessing, or what ideology it promoted, but he claimed young white men were “the most likely ethnicity, gender and age range to be vulnerable to extremist ideas” in Australia and New Zealand.
NZ Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) advice has raised concern about the targeting of young people through extreme and violent content online, in line with broader Five Eyes concerns. The Five Eyes intelligence grouping comprises the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has consistently identified young men as the demographic most frequently appearing in violent extremism pathways.
The latest NZSIS threat report says “no one ideology currently stands out as presenting a greater threat”.
“There remains a roughly even spread of violent extremist ideologies present among the individuals who come to our attention, including identity-motivated and faith-motivated violent extremism, as well as people who have mixed, unstable or unclear ideologies,” its report states.
At the same time, Australian security agencies continue to identify right-wing, white-identity and ethno-nationalist ideologies as a persistent part of the threat landscape.
ASIO says the majority of potential terrorist matters it investigated last year involved mixed ideologies or nationalist and racist ideologies, while in New Zealand the Classification Office has published research outlining links between online misogyny and violent extremism, including overlap with far-right and white-identity extremist narratives.
The NZSIS has said New Zealand’s information environment makes it relatively easy to access violent extremist material.
The threat profile has focused not only on the ease of accessing the information but on “closed or anonymous online networks” that concentrate messaging and create closed ecosystems where hate is peddled.
In its latest threat report, the NZSIS warned about AI supercharging such extremism, saying it was being used to make “harmful propaganda appear more authentic” and that it “allows it to be spread at scale and speed”.
“The ease of access to AI will be assisting violent extremists to research and plan attacks and is reducing barriers that previously made it difficult to access information about more advanced capabilities or weapons,” said the threat report.
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He first joined the Herald in 2004.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.