YouTuber charged after filming inside Dezi Freeman’s hideout
A Yea man walked into a police station and turned himself in — then told his followers he’d probably just cop a fine.
A YouTuber has been charged with trespassing after filming the bush hideout where cop killer Dezi Freeman was shot dead, then uploading the footage for his followers.
He turned himself in.
Victoria Police confirmed on Sunday that detectives had charged a 43-year-old Yea man over an incident at a property on Murray River Road in Thologolong on 16 April.
One count of trespass, on summons.
He is due at Wodonga Magistrates Court on 13 October.
The charge wasn’t broken by police, or by a court list, or by a reporter.
He announced it himself, to camera, on Sunday morning.
“I am officially connected to the Dezi Freeman case,” he told his YouTube audience.
“I am now officially charged; it is in the magistrate’s court and I will go there at the end of the year.”
He did not sound worried.
“If they wanted to charge me with more they could of, but they didn’t, so yeah, I would imagine I would only get a fine for that.”
The footage that got him there showed the campsite as police left it — camping chairs tipped over, cooking gear still on the tables, an overturned tinny punched through with bullet holes.
It was the end of one of the largest manhunts in the country’s history.
Freeman, 56, went on the run in August 2025 after shooting dead Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart and Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson at his Porepunkah home in Victoria’s High Country.
He stayed loose for months.
Police finally traced him to the Thologolong property, near Walwa on the Victoria–NSW border, where specialist police shot him dead in March.