Police have said they will not charge an Australian teenager or a senator for a spat in which the boy cracked an egg on the politician’s head and the man retaliated.
Victoria state police said in a statement that after reviewing footage and interviewing both participants, they had issued an official caution only to 17-year-old Will Connolly.
They said they concluded Senator Fraser Anning had acted in self-defence when he twice struck the teenager afterwards.
The teenager gained fame as “Egg Boy” for egging Anning in Melbourne last month, after the senator controversially blamed the Christchurch mosque massacre on Muslim immigration.
The politician came under blistering criticism over tweets sent, including one that said: “Does anyone still dispute the link between Muslim immigration and violence?”
“The real cause of the bloodshed on New Zealand streets today is the immigration program which allowed Muslim fanatics to migrate to New Zealand in the first place,” he said in a statement.
Anning’s colleagues in parliament passed a censure motion against him, saying his statements blaming the victims were ugly and dangerous.
After the egg attack many supporters on Twitter hailed the teenager as a hero and a GoFundMe page was even launched, with the aim described as raising money for “legal fees” and “more eggs”.
Within 14 hours it had raised more than $10,000 (£7,500).
Twitter user @defilibrator tweeted: “Egg boy showed the world that religion, age or ethnicity doesn’t matter when it comes to standing up against oppression, hatred and evil. You only need a pure heart and the egg boy has a heart of gold! Bless you.”