Australia’s ‘Egg Boy’ gives donations to NZ attack survivors

An Australian teenager who broke an egg on a controversial far-right senator’s head says he has given almost A$100,000 (£55,000; $69,000) to survivors of the Christchurch mosque attacks.

Will Connolly, 17, egged Fraser Anning in March – prompting people online to dub him “Egg Boy” and flood him with donations to pay his legal expenses.

Mr Anning had caused fury a day earlier when he said Muslim migration was to blame for the Christchurch shootings.

Fifty-one people died in the attacks.

Mr Anning was formally censured by Australia’s Senate in April for his “appalling” remarks, made on the day of the shootings.

Mr Connolly confronted the senator from behind as he gave a press conference in Melbourne on 16 March.

Footage of the clash went viral. It showed Mr Anning physically retaliating before his supporters tackled the teenager to the ground.

Online fundraising campaigns were set up for Mr Connolly to “buy more eggs” and to cover potential legal fees.

Police chose not to press any charges last month, instead giving the teenager an “official caution”. They ruled Mr Anning had acted in self-defence.

On Tuesday, Mr Connolly announced that he had transferred “all monies” to New Zealand charities in charge of official fundraising efforts.

“To the victims of the tragedy, I whole heartedly hope that this can bring some relief to you,” he said.

View this post on Instagram

Finally!!! After a huge amount of red tape,$99,922.36 has today been transferred to the Christchurch Foundation and Victims Support. For those of you who don’t know, there were 2 Go Fund Me pages set up to help cover the cost of my legal fees and to ‘buy more eggs’. Gratefully, Gordon Legal acted probono for me so I don’t have any legal fees. I decided to donate all monies to help provide some relief to the victims of the massacre… it wasn’t mine to keep. I want to thank Corey and @sajjad12345 who set up the funds and every single person who donated to the money and made this possible. To the victims of the Tragedy, I whole heartedly hope that this can bring some relief to you. Keep spreading the love. ❤️🙌🏻

A post shared by Will Connolly (@willconnolly__) on May 28, 2019 at 1:19am PDT

Though his actions drew praise, they also sparked a conversation in Australia about forms of political protest.

Another protester drew considerably less public support for throwing an egg at Prime Minister Scott Morrison earlier this month.

Mr Connolly told Australia’s Ten network in March: “I understand what I did was not the right thing to do. However, this egg has united people.”

Victims of the Christchurch shootings

Fifty-one people lost their lives in the shootings at two mosques in the city.

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Mr Anning has refused to apologise for his comments, despite a petition which was signed by more than 1.4 million people.

He failed to win a new term in the Senate at Australia’s general election on 18 May.