Augustus Sol Invictus: White nationalist arrested for stalking his wife

White nationalist Austin Gillespie — who changed his name to Augustus Sol Invictus — was arrested over the weekend for allegedly stalking his wife.

Invictus was jailed on Tuesday in Orange County.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that the 36-year-old white nationalist was recently released from a South Carolina jail where he had been held on domestic violence charges. In late March, Invictus was granted bond after he requested he be released over concerns he'd be infected with the coronavirus.

Invictus was arrested after his wife called the Orange County Sheriff's Office to report that he'd violated the terms of his bond and a restraining order she had against him when he made contact with her.

She told the deputies that every day since his release he had utilised a go-between to demand that she let him see their children. In addition to the go-between, he was also using alternate phone numbers — including those of his children from a past relationship — to call and harass her.

Things escalated on Monday when Invictus reportedly texted his daughter that his wife had to bring them to Dickson Azalea Park, "or else."

The park was a site Invictus had previously used as a venue for conflicts with his wife. In his messages, he was adamant that she meet him there and bring the children with her.

"I'm going to plan to see you at 4, if she doesn't bring you to the park I assume she wants to fight," Invictus is said to have texted, according to an affidavit by Deputy Nicholas Wacker.

His wife told authorities that she had once brought the children to the park and allowed them to spend an hour with Invictus. While at the park she said she had a discussion with a man, and Invictus allegedly directed his daughter to photograph the wife and the man having a conversation.

Mr Wacker's affidavit said that "Augustus then told their daughter 'your mother is a whore.'"

Deputies who recovered and searched Invictus' cell phone found evidence that he'd attempted to use other people to find his wife, sending them photos of her vehicle and her licence plate, and that GPS tracking software on his vehicle showed he'd drive in circles around the area of Orlando where she lived.

His wife claimed Invictus attempt to contact her more than 20 times since he was released from jail last month. In a statement she read to a court in February, Invictus "has abused me more times than I can count."

In the incident that landed Invictus in prison the first time, he choked his wife, held a gun to her head and forced her to drive from South Carolina to Florida.

She explained how Invictus would force her to hide the evidence of her abuse.

"To conceal the bruises from the public, he regularly punched me in my stomach and in my head so it hard it caused me to see flashes of light," she said. "He locked me in a bedroom and wouldn't let me out for days. He nearly fractured my wrist ... He threw me on the floor, stepped on me, and screamed vile insults I will never forget."

Invictus unsuccessfully ran as a Libertarian for the US Senate in 2016 and is a prominent member of the white nationalist 'alt-right.' He was a featured member of the United the Right rally in Charlottesville, where Nazi sympathisers and white nationalists gathered to shout white supremacist slogans and where counter-protester Heather Heyer was killed when a member of the alt-right drove his car through a group of people.