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Hoddle Street killer Julian Knight, one of Australia's most notorious mass murderers, has lost a last ditch High Court fight to overturn laws specifically designed to keep him in prison indefinitely.
Knight killed seven people in Melbourne's Hoddle Street in a shooting spree in 1987, injuring 19 others.
He was later sentenced to life in prison, with a 27-year non-parole period.
Just before the period expired in 2014, the Victorian Government introduced laws naming Knight, and preventing him from seeking parole unless he was seriously incapacitated or in imminent danger of dying.
But Knight challenged the laws, arguing they interfered with the independence of the court which imposed the non-parole period.
The High Court today found the laws keeping Knight in jail did not interfere with the sentence imposed by Victoria's Supreme Court, as the decision on parole fell outside the court's powers.
"Whether or not Mr Knight would be released on parole at the expiration of the minimum term was simply outside the scope of the exercise of judicial power constituted by imposition of the sentences," the court found.
When the laws were introduced in 2014, Victoria's then-premier Denis Napthine said Knight "deserved to rot in jail".
Knight recently wrote an open letter of apology to his victims, the police and the public, in which he described his crimes as "despicable, cowardly and senseless".
"Thirty years have passed since the Hoddle Street shootings and I am far from the immature, disturbed and desperate teenager who committed them," he wrote.
"If I had been granted parole back in 2014 I would have very quickly faded into obscurity."
- February to May, 1987: Knight alleges that during this time there were 10 incidents of verbal and physical abuse at Duntroon military college.
- August 9, 1987: Knight goes on shooting spree at Clifton Hill, killing seven people and injuring 19 others.
- November 10, 1988: Knight is sentenced to a minimum 27 years' jail, not eligible for parole until May, 2014, after pleading guilty to all charges.
- October 19, 2004: Knight is declared a vexatious litigant for 10 years, meaning he requires specific permission from the courts for any legal action. This was after he had launched 40 actions, of which only 10 proceeded.
- March 7, 2014: Knight wins the right to access a computer to help with his legal applications.
- March, 2014: The Victorian Government passes a law so Knight cannot get parole unless he is in imminent danger of death or serious incapacitation, so that he is not a danger to anyone. The law passes just before he becomes eligible for parole, and targets only him.
- August 30, 2016: Knight is declared a vexatious litigant for life. He had attempted to launch 40 legal proceedings in the decade since being declared a vexatious litigant, and had been granted leave to pursue just 10 of those cases.
- September 15, 2016: Knight loses a Federal Court challenge to be considered for compensation for alleged abuse at Duntroon. He was knocked back by the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce. He applied when prisoners' reparation payments could be put into a trust, but the law was changed so that did not apply to those convicted of very serious crimes.
- January 17, 2017: Knight loses his bid for an extension of time to pursue damages against the Commonwealth.
- March 18, 2017: Knight asks the High Court to rule that the Victorian law keeping him in jail is invalid under the Constitution, arguing it interferes with the independence of the courts.
Topics: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, murder-and-manslaughter, crime, clifton-hill-3068, melbourne-3000, vic
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