The man who allegedly blew up gas cylinders in a van outside the Australian Christian Lobby's Canberra headquarters in December last year has died overnight.
ACT Police confirmed to BuzzFeed News that officers had been called out to attend the death of a 36-year-old man at 4.30pm on Sunday, and that the death was not being treated as suspicious.
"Investigations are ongoing and a report will be prepared for the ACT coroner," the spokesperson said in the statement.
Jaden Duong was due back in the ACT Magistrates Court in November to face one count of arson and one count of property damage, after allegedly blowing up gas cylinders in a rented van outside the Australian Christian Lobby's (ACL) Canberra headquarters late in the evening of December 21 last year.
No-one was in the building at the time, however the explosion and ensuing fire caused significant damage to the office.
Duong had pleaded not guilty on the grounds of mental impairment.
The day after the incident, ACT Police said that Duong had told officers that his intention was to blow himself up, and he was not motivated by political, religious or ideological reasons to target the ACL.
But court documents revealed that Duong had one time searched for the organisation, and disliked the organisation because "religions are failed".
This revelation was seized upon by those arguing that those in favour of same-sex marriage are intolerant of the "no" side. In a column by conservative commentator Andrew Bolt in The Daily Telegraph today, for example, the incident is listed by Bolt as an example of the "intolerant zeal of gay activists" who show "contempt for free speech".
The push back against ACT Police claims that the incident was not religiously or politically motivated resulted in ACT Police publishing an extensive statement on the case in August.
The ACT Police maintained its stance that mental illness was a considerable factor in Duong's alleged action, and said it would have alleged in court that Duong's primary motivation was to blow himself up.
The decision to target the ACL was spontaneous, the ACT Police says, because he could find no other suitable location.
ACT Police say that in addition to looking up how to make a bomb and buy a gun, Duong's internet search history showed him searching up same-sex marriage, religious and spiritual ideologies and, on one occasion, the ACL.
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