The location of a Sunshine Coast home destroyed in a suspected vigilante arson attack on Wednesday had been identified in dozens of social media posts calling for violence against three girls accused of seriously assaulting another girl.
The identities of the girls, 12, 13 and 14, are suppressed under Queensland law but their names and photographs appear in hundreds of live social media posts on multiple platforms, including calls for people to “bash” them or take retribution.
Early on Wednesday morning a property at Tewantin, understood to be the scene of the alleged assault, was destroyed by fire.
Police investigating the arson attack said on Thursday they were also looking into racist flyers distributed in the area near the home, which list the name of a neo-Nazi group. The flyers depict two of the girls and contain a racial slur.
“Early indications are that the flyer itself had been generated by people that don’t live on the Sunshine Coast or have no connection to the Sunshine Coast,” Supt Craig Hawkins said.
“Simply, they are attempting to incite a level of fear, incite a racial dispute and they have no real motivation other than that.”
The Tewantin property, owned by the Queensland department of housing, was unoccupied when it burned down on Wednesday.
Police said there had been several attempts to start fires at the Tewantin property in recent days and other instances of vandalism.
It followed social media posts identifying the home as the location of the assault and deprivation of liberty of a 13-year-old girl.
Guardian Australia has viewed posts – which remain online on multiple social media platforms – identifying the girls accused of the attack, and listing their addresses, physical description, ethnicity and phone numbers.
Information posted also includes the names of the girls’ family members, their phone numbers, addresses and workplace information.
One post includes a map showing the location of the property, a photograph of the front of the house, names one of the girls and says: “See ya soon.”
Det Sen Sgt Craig Mansfield said a digital evidence team was “combing through social media” to identify videos and posts that may be relevant.
Mansfield said police had been doing regular patrols of the street in recent days. He said the threat of vigilantism was being treated seriously.
There have been increasing concerns about vigilantism in Queensland, particularly amid a heightened environment relating to youth crime.
Children living in a Queensland residential care home were the subject of death threats on social media earlier this year – including calls for neighbours to “storm the house” and “hang whoever is inside” – after media reports incorrectly claimed the premises was a halfway house for young criminals.
Police also expressed concerns about the potential for vigilantism at a crime forum in Toowoomba in February, while the state’s human rights commissioner, Scott McDougall, has spoken of “the need for police to closely monitor vigilante activity”.
