Victoria Police will seek help from the FBI to build its case against the alleged creator of “Pam the Bird”, a cartoon bird spray-painted on landmarks around Melbourne.
It comes as the estimated graffiti clean-up bill has now exceeded $200,000, the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court heard on Tuesday.
Senior Constable Scott Nicholls said police would work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to obtain a search warrant of Meta, the parent company of social media platform Instagram.
He said police were hoping to access data from an Instagram account that promotes Pam the Bird works, believing the page with 75,000 followers was operated by the cartoon’s alleged creator, Jackson Gibson-Burrell.
Mr Gibson-Burrell is charged with dozens of offences related to graffiti in Melbourne. (Instagram: goodbirdart)
Mr Gibson-Burrell, 21, is facing more than 50 charges and is accused of painting the bird on locations including the Flinders Street Station clock tower, the “Cheese Stick” column on CityLink, Channel Nine’s Docklands headquarters and the Novotel hotel in South Wharf.
Pam the Bird has also appeared on numerous Metro train carriages and freeway overpass signs.
The bird isn’t just etched in Melbourne’s urban landscape — it’s also racking up an escalating clean-up bill, the court heard.
Senior Constable Nicholls said the estimated cost of removing the graffiti would soar past $200,000, with the most expensive job — the 100-metre-high Novotel building —projected to cost $36,000 alone.
Estimated costs to clean the Novotel building are in the tens of thousands of dollars. (Instagram: goodbirdart)
He alleged Mr Gibson-Burrell was also responsible for $112,000 worth of thefts.
Senior Constable Nicholls said Mr Gibson-Burrell was suspected of other crimes including assaults, home invasions and an alleged stabbing.
‘Distinctive’ bird not the work of copycats, police say
In court, defence barrister Jonathan Miller questioned how police could be certain Mr Gibson-Burrell was the sole creator of Pam the Bird.
Senior Constable Nicholls rejected the notion of copycats, saying the task of scaling buildings and abseiling to paint graffiti could not be done by an “average Joe”.
Police allege the degree of difficulty in the graffiti offences meant copycat artists were unlikely to be responsible. (Instagram: goodbirdart)
He also explained there was a “distinctness” to the cartoon bird, launching into a detailed description of the feathered character.
“We typically see this bird graffiti has a sharp triangle pointed beak with a line that separates the upper and lower portion of the beak that approximately extends three quarters away from the tip,” he said.
“We have that going towards a large eyeball with a centre pupil. We have an oval-shaped body in this bird as well as a semi-circle which is on the top of the head or back of the bird.
“We have rear feathers, which are always in a set of three. If feet are present in the art, they always include three talons on each foot.”
Police allege the design of Pam the Bird remains consistent across each incident. (Instagram: goodbirdart)
Handwriting analysis ‘concocted pseudoscience’, lawyer argues
Police allege co-accused Matthew Raoul White, 39, assisted Mr Gibson-Burrell and was responsible for other graffiti tags.
Senior Constable Michael McCarthy said Mr White had previously spent 100 days in a US prison for graffiti crimes and once jumped off the top of a moving train into a river to gain notoriety on social media.
He also said Mr White had a history of destroying evidence to hinder police, including a 2013 incident when he was in the back of a police van and tried to eat paper from a graffiti scrapbook.
Defence lawyers said the design of each graffiti piece would be easy for others to replicate. (Instagram: goodbirdart)
Barrister Jonathan Barreiro, for Mr White, said handwriting analysis completed by police in the Pam the Bird investigation was “complete nonsense” that would be deemed inadmissible.
“It’s absolutely concocted pseudoscience and really what we’re talking about are large pieces of graffiti that are easy to replicate,” Mr Barreiro said.
The court heard both men are contesting the charges.
Having heard more than four hours of evidence, Magistrate Johanna Metcalf will decide on Wednesday whether the pair will be released on bail.
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