N環球 
Sydney man remanded after allegedly threatening childcare shooting in AI chatbot chats
David Lan Thackray, 29, was charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend after Interpol flagged his conversations with Anthropic's Claude; a court remanded him for a mental health assessment.
Why it matters
This is among the first cases in Australia in which prosecution followed the contents of conversations with an AI chatbot: police acted after Interpol passed on a flag from the AI company, showing that content monitoring by AI platforms is becoming a new entry point for criminal investigations.
Full report
David Lan Thackray, 29, was arrested in Sydney on Sunday (October 18) and charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend, according to court documents. Police said Interpol had flagged his interactions with Claude, the AI assistant developed by Anthropic. Sutherland Local Court heard on Monday that Thackray allegedly told the chatbot he planned to carry out a mass shooting at a childcare centre near his Hurstville home, referencing the accused perpetrator of last December's Bondi Beach attack in which 15 people were killed; a police facts sheet quoted him as saying he would "go down to the local Westfield right now and shoot up the local daycare". Prosecutors warned the outcome could be "catastrophic" if he were released, and the court remanded him in custody for a mental health assessment.
His lawyer, Danilo Rajkovic, said Thackray had been trying to use Claude to help treat an ear infection and went on a "stress and frustration induced tirade", arguing there was "no weight" behind his words. The court heard he did not instruct the chatbot to issue threats to any person or organisation, believed the exchange was private inside his own home, and had requested a review after his account was suspended. Sources: Sydney Morning Herald; Zot News; Newslocker citing court documents and the police facts sheet.
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