The young couple whose illegal lockdown engagement party enraged Melburnians and made international headlines last week are reportedly in hiding after being pummelled with anti-Semitic hate speech and death threats. Footage of the 69-person gathering in St Kilda sparked an outpouring of vile rhetoric directed at the Jewish community as tougher restrictions were enforced hours after the damning video emerged. Now, according to the Daily Mail, the newly-engaged couple have been forced into hiding, hiring private security for protection.
The number of Covid-19 cases now linked to their engagement party grew to at least 10 over the past few days, with the organisers fined $5500 each. Victoria Police chief commissioner Shane Patton said four people had already been fined. “Two of those have been to the parents of the bride-to-be and two of those have been to the engaged couple as well,” Mr Patton said. “The investigation is still ongoing, it’s obviously been hampered to a degree by the fact that they’re in isolation.”
The Caulfield North event was leaked publicly after the video was shared within a WhatsApp group, Daily Mail reports, going viral within hours of it being shared. The video shows guests laughing at a joke made by the fiance about the event being held during Melbourne’s sixth lockdown where people aren’t allowed to gather in private residences. “Clearly this is legal, this is a group-therapy session, that’s why my father is here,” the groom-to-be, a part-time teacher and law student, told the room full of maskless attendees.
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