Man pleads guilty to using Facebook to harass retiring Labor senator Nova Peris.

A 64-year-old chiropractor has admitted to using Facebook to post abusive comments about retiring Labor senator Nova Peris.

Chris Nelson has pleaded guilty in a NSW Central Coast court to using a carriage service to cause offence.

Among the comments he posted was: “Go back to the bush and suck on witchity [sic] grubs and yams.”

Nelson, who is based at Woy Woy, was arrested at his business in May after he had made the comments about the Northern Territory Senator which went viral.

At the time, he denied he was responsible, saying his account was hacked, but later made admissions to police.

He showed no emotion during his brief appearance at Woy Woy Local Court.

Outside court, Nelson said: “How many times do I have to say ‘no comment’?”

The comments included several instances of profanity.

“You were only endorsed by Juliar because you were a black c***,” another comment said.

On her own social media accounts, Senator Peris labelled the comments as “racist and vile hatred”.

Earlier this year, Senator Peris announced she would not re-contest her Senate seat at the upcoming election.

She gave an emotional defence of her decision to quit, declaring: “Until you are an Indigenous person, do not criticise me for the decisions I’ve made.”

After the online abuse was made public, Senator Peris said she would continue to call out and fight racism.

She said no one had the right to make anyone else feel threatened or discriminated against.

An online petition, calling on police to investigate the comments, attracted thousands of signatures.

Nelson had been a member of the Liberal Party’s NSW division, but was stripped of his party membership after being charged.

The NSW Chiropractic Council said it was aware of the comments and was investigating.

Senator Peris entered federal politics at the expense of veteran Senator Trish Crossin, who was abruptly dumped by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard in a so-called “captain’s pick”.

Senator Peris was the first Aboriginal woman in federal politics and Labor’s first Aboriginal member in Federal Parliament.

This post originally appeared on ABC News.

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