The president of the Queensland Law Society has warned that an “electronic lynch mob” targeting the accused killer of Brisbane teenager Cole Miller via social media could put a trial at risk.

The internet group Anonymous Australia sought to disparage the character of Armstrong Renata – one of two men charged with unlawful striking causing Miller’s death – in a Facebook post which had attracted more than 26,000 likes and more than 25,000 shares by Tuesday afternoon.

Renata appeared hours earlier in the Brisbane magistrates court on the upgraded striking charge after Miller died from brain injuries sustained in an alleged one-punch assault in the city’s Chinatown mall on Sunday morning.

Anonymous Australia responded to commenters who warned of the risk of jeopardising a trial by boasting of reaching millions of people when posting on a previous assault case.

“Hey everyone preaching the whole fair trial thing, you must’ve missed the last time we covered something like this. We reached 2.5m people with that post, and that bastard is chilling in jail. Make of it what you will,” it said.

However, Queensland law society’s president, Bill Potts, said social media material denigrating an accused person – even if it stopped short of explicit conclusions about his guilt – risked creating a mistrial as it “appealed to prejudice” that could influence potential jurors.

Potts was “calling for people to calm down” as both the Miller family and Renata had the right to expect a fair trial.

“We as a society shouldn’t allow electronic lynch mobs and the baying crowd sway the way in which justice is done,” he said.

“I understand people are upset and I know the internet is often used as a safety valve by some but it’s also used as a bully’s pulpit by others.

“My concern in these types of matters is once it is out on the internet it is there forever.

“And jurors, despite the fact they are instructed carefully by judges trying to ensure a fair trial that they should only listen to the evidence that is actually heard in court and is admissible and shouldn’t look at the internet – sometimes curiosity gets the better of them.

“There have been occasions where despite all of the warnings, a trial is miscarried because of the curiosity of a juror.

“So this type of outpouring of emotion can be safety valve but it can also be a significant issue so far as the obtaining of a fair trial.

“It doesn’t matter what people might think – whether they think these people are heinous or cowardly, they are entitled to the same presumption of innocence that everybody is.”

Renata and his co-accused, Daniel Maxwell, both face a minimum 15-year jail sentence if convicted and imprisoned on the new charge of unlawful striking causing death.

Miller’s death has prompted renewed debate about ways of tackling alcohol-fuelled violence in Queensland.

The former Newman government introduced the unlawful striking charge as a punitive measure to tackle alcohol-fuelled assaults.

In a retirement speech last year an outgoing district court judge, Hugh Botting, rejected the idea that tougher penalties would reduce assaults involving alcohol.

He said one-punch laws were “society’s revenge” and that anyone believing they were a deterrent was “living in cloud cuckoo land”.

The Queensland homicide victims support group claims its “One Punch Can Kill” campaign since 2007 could have prevented deaths such as Miller’s but for a lack of government funding.

But the deputy premier, Jackie Trad, said the Palaszczuk government wanted more evidence the campaign changed behaviour before committing funds.

The law society has swung its support behind the Palaszczuk government’s proposed lockout laws as a more effective means of preventing deaths in alcohol-fuelled assaults.

Opponents to the draft bill before state parliament, which would restrict alcohol trading in the state’s entertainment precincts after 1am, include Katter’s Australian party and the independent Billy Gordon.

Potts called on MPs to put “the greater interests of our society, which is the prevention of death, above the interests of business”.

“I don’t want to be a wowser and I appreciate we as a society allow alcohol as a lawful drug,” he said.

“But where there is a clear proven method of reducing substantially the danger – invariably to young men staggering out of nightclubs and pubs in the middle of the night – by lockouts, it behoves us as a society to take a longer term view.

“It’s easy for [governments] to pass laws and say they’re tough on crime whereas the thing that is expensive both politically and in terms of revenue is in fact the better decision.”

The president of the Queensland Law Society has warned that an “electronic lynch mob” targeting the accused killer of Brisbane teenager Cole Miller via social media could put a trial at risk.

The internet group Anonymous Australia sought to disparage the character of Armstrong Renata – one of two men charged with unlawful striking causing Miller’s death – in a Facebook post which had attracted more than 26,000 likes and more than 25,000 shares by Tuesday afternoon.

Renata appeared hours earlier in the Brisbane magistrates court on the upgraded striking charge after Miller died from brain injuries sustained in an alleged one-punch assault in the city’s Chinatown mall on Sunday morning.

Anonymous Australia responded to commenters who warned of the risk of jeopardising a trial by boasting of reaching millions of people when posting on a previous assault case.

“Hey everyone preaching the whole fair trial thing, you must’ve missed the last time we covered something like this. We reached 2.5m people with that post, and that bastard is chilling in jail. Make of it what you will,” it said.

However, Queensland law society’s president, Bill Potts, said social media material denigrating an accused person – even if it stopped short of explicit conclusions about his guilt – risked creating a mistrial as it “appealed to prejudice” that could influence potential jurors.

Potts was “calling for people to calm down” as both the Miller family and Renata had the right to expect a fair trial.

“We as a society shouldn’t allow electronic lynch mobs and the baying crowd sway the way in which justice is done,” he said.

“I understand people are upset and I know the internet is often used as a safety valve by some but it’s also used as a bully’s pulpit by others.

“My concern in these types of matters is once it is out on the internet it is there forever.

“And jurors, despite the fact they are instructed carefully by judges trying to ensure a fair trial that they should only listen to the evidence that is actually heard in court and is admissible and shouldn’t look at the internet – sometimes curiosity gets the better of them.

“There have been occasions where despite all of the warnings, a trial is miscarried because of the curiosity of a juror.

“So this type of outpouring of emotion can be safety valve but it can also be a significant issue so far as the obtaining of a fair trial.

“It doesn’t matter what people might think – whether they think these people are heinous or cowardly, they are entitled to the same presumption of innocence that everybody is.”

Renata and his co-accused, Daniel Maxwell, both face a minimum 15-year jail sentence if convicted and imprisoned on the new charge of unlawful striking causing death.

Miller’s death has prompted renewed debate about ways of tackling alcohol-fuelled violence in Queensland.

The former Newman government introduced the unlawful striking charge as a punitive measure to tackle alcohol-fuelled assaults.

In a retirement speech last year an outgoing district court judge, Hugh Botting, rejected the idea that tougher penalties would reduce assaults involving alcohol.

He said one-punch laws were “society’s revenge” and that anyone believing they were a deterrent was “living in cloud cuckoo land”.

The Queensland homicide victims support group claims its “One Punch Can Kill” campaign since 2007 could have prevented deaths such as Miller’s but for a lack of government funding.

But the deputy premier, Jackie Trad, said the Palaszczuk government wanted more evidence the campaign changed behaviour before committing funds.

The law society has swung its support behind the Palaszczuk government’s proposed lockout laws as a more effective means of preventing deaths in alcohol-fuelled assaults.

Opponents to the draft bill before state parliament, which would restrict alcohol trading in the state’s entertainment precincts after 1am, include Katter’s Australian party and the independent Billy Gordon.

Potts called on MPs to put “the greater interests of our society, which is the prevention of death, above the interests of business”.

“I don’t want to be a wowser and I appreciate we as a society allow alcohol as a lawful drug,” he said.

“But where there is a clear proven method of reducing substantially the danger – invariably to young men staggering out of nightclubs and pubs in the middle of the night – by lockouts, it behoves us as a society to take a longer term view.

“It’s easy for [governments] to pass laws and say they’re tough on crime whereas the thing that is expensive both politically and in terms of revenue is in fact the better decision.”