EXCLUSIVE: Fancy seeing you back hair, Steeley. We find Glen Steele, the face of the Cronulla riots, back in the Shire ten years after he implored a beer-fuelled crowd to 'get Lebs off the beach'

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Ten years ago this Friday a well-known identity in the tribal Sutherland Shire in southern Sydney pulled off his shirt on Cronulla beach and shouted racial provocations at a beer-fuelled crowd gathered by the water's edge.

The well known surfer and former rugby league player became 'the face of the Cronulla riots' when shirtless and wearing a baseball cap with an Australia flag motif he whipped the crowd into a frenzy yelling 'get the Lebs off our beach'.

When footage of him inciting the crowd went around the world, he received death threats and had to leave Cronulla.

A decade on, Glen 'Steeley' Steele has returned to Cronulla and the beach where the scenes of violent racial clashes between 'Anglo' and Middle Eastern Australians brought the nation global infamy.

Mr Steele will not say whether he's a changed man. But his current Facebook page not only endorses the Cronulla Sharks - for whom he played in the 1980s - it also 'likes' the Boycott Halal in Australia cause which features a surfing kangaroo and koala and halal meat products dripping with blood.

Now aged 52, 'Steeley' is no longer the 'local hero' who whipped up patriotic fever on December 11, 2005.

But he is back living within metres of Cronulla beach where the iconic riot photographs were taken of his hairy torso and shouting over a megaphone at the enraged crowd.

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Ten years on: A decade after the Cronulla riots, the 'face' of the riot former rugby league player Glen 'Steeley' Steele (pictured) has returned to the beachside suburb and lives in an apartment just minutes from the beach where he incited others to keep 'Lebs' off the iconic strip

A decade ago this week Glen Steele (pictured outside his Cronulla home) screamed at the crowd gathered on the beach that 'our grandfathers fought to protect' Cronulla Beach and that 'we don't need these Lebanese or wogs to take it away from us'

Ex Cronulla Sharks player and surfer Glen Steele pictured at the Cronulla riot on December 11, 2005 with a megaphone urging the crowd to keep Lebanese Australians 'off our beach'

'Our grandfathers fought to protect this beach ... we don't need these Lebanese or wogs to take it away from us': Shirtless and in full flight Glen 'Steeley' Steele shouts at a crowd on Cronulla Beach on December 11, 2005 before riots erupted 

Steeley (pictured, centre, after taking his shirt off) did not engage in any violence during the racially charged melee which ensued at Cronulla, but he was later targeted by death threats and was forced to apologise to the Lebanese community

It was a hot Sunday and the crowd, who had been drinking alcohol, was already in a tense emotional mood.

A week earlier, two Cronulla volunteer lifesavers were assaulted in a confrontation with a group of eight Middle-Eastern Australians and in the ensuing days a text message was circulated.

It read, 'This Sunday every f***ing Aussie in the Shire get down to North Cronulla to to help support Leb and wog bashing day. Bring your mates down and let's show them that this is our beach and they're never welcome back'.

Steeley, a then 42-year-old construction worker, gathered with the 5000 others at North Cronulla where he was both an active supporter of the junior board riders association in which his son, Jack, surfed and he was a competitor in the masters event. 

Glen Steele pictured returning from a day's work to his home at Cronulla Beach, scene of the race riots a decade ago in which he was a well-known local urging others to protect their turf from Middle-Eastern blow-ins

Glen 'Steeley' Steele pictured last weekend on the beach and, above right, in 2013, had to leave Cronulla following the riots after he received death threats following his role urging 'wogs' off the beach but has now returned and lives in Cronulla

Now aged 52, Glen Steele (pictured outside his home this week) played a few games for the Cronulla Sharks rugby league team in the 1980s, and was a construction worker and well-known local surfer when he took up the megaphone on the day of the Cronulla riots

Ugly scenes: A tense confrontation during the Cronulla riots which broke out ten years ago and resulted in violent attacks on Middle-Eastern Australians and a payback by some of their number in beachside suburbs

Television cameras recorded what he did next. 'This is what our grandfathers fought for, to protect this,' Steeley screamed, jabbing his finger at Cronulla beach, 'so we can enjoy it, and we don't need these Lebanese or wogs to take it away from us.'

Steeley ripped off his t-shirt to reveal a tanned and hairy torso and shouts again at the crowd on the beach. 

Then he took up a megaphone and begins to rev up the crowd, yelling 'Get Lebs off the beach' and 'No Lebs in Sutherland Shire, it's our beach', with the mob chanting in return 'F--- off Lebs' and 'F--- off, wogs'.

Among the crowd is a young man, Marcus Kapitza, wearing a t-shirt which says 'Mohammed was a camel raping f****t'. 

Police and ambulance officers were injured in the riot which erupted after lunchtime and much alcohol consumption on December 11, 2005 when thousands gathered to get revenge on attacks by men of Middle-Eastern origin

Word went around that a group of 'Lebs' had arrived at Cronulla train station and swept up in a raging mob, young men converge on platform and attacked people inside a carriage in a wave of flying fists and bottles.

Former rugby league player and Cronulla beach local Glen 'Steeley' Steele likes on Facebook his old team, the Cronulla Sharks and the Boycott Halal in Australia cause ten years after he urged locals to keep 'Lebs and wogs' off teh beach

 Just after lunchtime, word went around that a group of 'Lebs' had arrived at Cronulla train station. Swept up in by now raging mob, young men converge on platform and attack young men inside a carriage in a wave of flying fists, kicks and bottles. 

Marcus Kapitza is arrested for throwing punches at two Middle-eastern Australians after banging the train carriage windows and yelling, 'f*** off Lebs, f** the Lebs'.

Mitchell John Newby is caught stomping on another man. Two men, Mark Barry Miller and Mathew John Lalor are arrested Molotov cocktails they made in their Cronulla flat.

Glen Steele does not commit any violent acts at the Cronulla riots, but his surfside rant and his apelike figure on the megaphone inciting the crowd make international news coverage of Australia's 'most disgraceful day.

Glen Steele said after the Cronulla riots in December 2005 that  at no stage did he have anything to do with 'organising or any aggressive nature to either the Lebanese or Middle Eastern community'

Glen Steele (pictured in white t-shirt and blue cap) did not commit any violent acts on this first day of the Cronulla riots, but his surfside rant and his apelike figure on the megaphone inciting the crowd made international news coverage of Australia's 'most disgraceful day'

A week before Glen Steele (centre) and thousands gathered at Cronulla beach before the riots, two volunteer lifesavers were assaulted in a confrontation with a group of eight Middle-Eastern Australians and in the ensuing days a provocative text message was circulated

The text message which was shared with about 170,000 people read 'This Sunday every f***ing Aussie in the Shire get down to North Cronulla to to help support Leb and wog bashing day. Bring your mates down and let's show them that this is our beach and they're never welcome back'

Glen Steele (pictured in 2005 on Crinulla Beach) won't comment about whether he is a now a changed man, but his Facebook page does support the Ban Hilal meat from Australia cause

To some he's a 'local hero' but to others Steeley is the 'face of the riot' and with two young children to protect he flees his home after death threats.

'I have heard that I've got a contract on me so the best thing for me is to stay out and hopefully it will blow over, over time,' Mr Steele said at the time.

'I don't want to say any more. The police want me to keep quiet.' 

Four days after the riot, Glen Steele apologised to the Lebanese community on Channel Ten.

'First of all, I'd like to apologise to the Middle Eastern community about what happened on Sunday,' he told the Ten Network.

'At the start of the day, there was never any intention for the day to end up like it had. We've had a little bit of problems with gangs in Cronulla especially in summer over the last five to eight years.

'And with summer approaching, obviously the last couple of weeks, and with the lifesaver bashing the week before, this is what the protest was all about.'

He said that at no stage did he have anything to do with 'organising or any aggressive nature to either the Lebanese or Middle Eastern community'. 

Strident anti-Lebanese sentiment and a belief that men of Middle-eastern origin were attacking the Australian beach culture led to a patriotic outburst at Cronulla (above) in 2005 and eventual rioting

Marcus Kapitza, wearing his home made t-shirt which says 'Mohammed was a camel raping f****t', at the Cronulla riots after which he was convicted of one charge of riot

'I went down there as a peaceful father, a concerned resident of Sutherland Shire all my life,' he said, adding that he was 'very passionate about the surf and the beach and that's what I went there for.

'Alcohol did come into it, not on my part, but I can say on the majority of people's parts, towards the end of the day ... and the meeting started peacefully at 12 o'clock.'

For a time, he moved with his family away from his Cronulla home to a secret location, believed to be on the NSW south coast.

Mr Steele later said that he worked with Lebanese people in the construction industry.

When Daily Mail Australia tracked Glen Steele down in Cronulla, he declined to speak about the riots.

Asked whether he was a changed man, Mr Steele replied 'no comment'.