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A community work order has been issued to a neo-Nazi leader for intimidating a police officer and his spouse. The 32-year-old Thomas Sewell was convicted on Friday of three counts of intimidating a law enforcement official and his spouse by making specific threats to reveal his private information.

While on remand for other cases, he appeared in person at Melbourne magistrates court from the court dock.

During podcasts in October and November of last year, Sewell threatened to “dox” a police officer and his spouse by releasing their wedding pictures and personal information.

“I’m working out how to dox him because those doxing laws haven’t come into effect yet,” he told a podcast. “Like his wedding photos, we’ve got it all downloaded, he’s a fucking idiot.”

The police officer gave evidence to the hearing about feeling “highly anxious” about his and his family’s safety. “I didn’t know what he was going to do with that information,” he told the court.

The officer’s wife did not give evidence in person to the hearing, but her statement was handed to the court. “I felt really intimidated and threatened, I felt like we were in danger,” she said.

When Sewell talked about the officer and his family, he said he was utilizing his implicit “freedom of communication” concerning public issues and keeping police accountable. However, Michelle Hodgson, the magistrate, dismissed these claims, concluding that he had targeted the officer’s personal life.

He “sought to weaponize personal information, personal insult, and public exposure to instill fear” in the officer and his spouse, according to Hodgson’s findings.

She dismissed Sewell’s argument that his offense was at the lower end, stating that it was “objectively very serious.”

“Police officers are front line forces of the law, if they are intimidated from carrying out their duties – because of threats of exposure, humiliation or retaliation – the justice system itself is undermined,” she told the court.

“A threat to dox can expose family, friends and home life, it uses technology to make private information available to a potentially hostile audience.

The maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, or two years if the case is heard in magistrates court, she added, reflected the fact that the offense included “a high degree of harm and trauma.”

Hodgson, however, chose not to sentence Sewell to any jail time. After he is released from detention for the separate offense, she mandated that he perform 200 hours of community service over the course of 18 months. In a contentious hearing over the charges that lasted more than a week, Sewell had defended himself.

On September 2, the second day of the trial, he was brought into custody after being apprehended outside the court for allegedly attacking the Camp Sovereignty, an Indigenous protest site.

Earlier on Friday, Hodgson found him guilty of two charges of violating personal safety restrictions and informing a police officer and his wife. In addition to failing to comply with a police directive to turn over the passwords to his devices, he was found not guilty of two additional violations of those orders.