Police seek FBI help in Pam the Bird graffiti case

Police allege the pair were at scenes together three times: to spray graffiti on the Nine headquarters (also home to The Age), an attempt on a residential complex in La Trobe Street, and trespassing inside the Flinders Street Station clocktower.

Senior Constable Michael McCarthy told the court White’s life “revolved around graffiti” and he had become one of the county’s best-connected subculture members, with murals traced to the US, France, Germany and Spain.

In 2018, a video circulated of White allegedly jumping off a train and into the Swan River in Fremantle. Then in 2019, McCarthy told the court, White was jailed in San Francisco for 120 days after pleading guilty to offences there. McCarthy said White was arrested by the US Department of Homeland Security at an airport as he tried to board a plane back to Australia.

White was allegedly captured on CCTV from an IGA near his home, coming and going at times when police say graffiti incidents occurred.

“The accused continues to play cat and mouse with authorities,” McCarthy said. “It’s only a matter of time until the accused and co-accused assault a member of the public to avoid apprehension.”

McCarthy said police were applying to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority for a warrant after a drone and other items, including a fake beard, were seized from White’s Abbotsford home.

Both men maintain their innocence and plan to contest the charges.

In arguing for bail, Gibson-Burrell’s legal team said their client was young, with a limited criminal history and facing a complex, circumstantial case.

Both defence teams argued that if remanded in custody, the men would be likely to face more time on remand than any jail term they might get if found guilty.

Gibson-Burrell wants to be bailed to live with his grandmother and gain work as a traffic controller, while White sought to eventually move to Ferny Creek.

Barrister Jonathan Barreiro, representing White, said the suggestions police could match some of the graffiti using a handwriting expert to prove they were committed by White was “complete nonsense”.

“It’s absolutely concocted, pseudoscience. Really what we’re talking about are large pieces of graffiti that would be easy to replicate,” Barreiro said.

He said Pam the Bird had become a sensation in Melbourne and the possibility of copycat offending was manifest.

“It’s complicated and circumstantial.

“In relation to each incident, the prosecution has to prove beyond reasonable doubt the relevant street art in question was not committed by one of the hundreds of thousands of Pam aficionados in this city.

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