The decision to allow Snowtown killer James Vlassakis to walk free on parole is set to be reconsidered after a court ruling found that blocking his release involved a jurisdictional error.
Court Ruling on Parole Block
The South Australian Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday that the decision to block the killer's parole was made in jurisdictional error. Vlassakis, the youngest killer jailed over the bodies-in-the-barrels murders, was involved in the deaths of 11 people.
The bodies of eight victims were discovered dismembered in barrels inside a disused bank vault north of Adelaide in 1999. Vlassakis pleaded guilty to murdering four people, including his half-brother Troy Youde, and was sentenced to life in prison in 2001.
Parole Application and Initial Grant
He applied for parole in December 2024, and the Parole Board of South Australia granted his conditional release in August last year. However, Parole Administrative Review Commissioner Michael David KC blocked the decision, citing concern for the enormity of the crime and the risk to the community, according to a Court of Appeal judgement handed down on Thursday.
“With the fact that this is the first occasion on which parole is available, to release Mr Vlassakis at this relatively early stage would be a risk to the community,” the Commissioner had said.
Appeal Court Findings
But the Court of Appeal judgement on Thursday ruled that the Commissioner’s determination may have been made in jurisdictional error. “This conclusion was dependent on the Commissioner’s finding about the Parole Board’s assessment of the gravity of the offending. However, for the reasons given, it was not open to the Commissioner to find that the Parole Board had underestimated the gravity of the offending,” the judgement said.
The Commissioner was unable to provide compelling reasoning to back up his assertion that the Parole Board underestimated the gravity of Vlassakis’ crimes, the court judgement found.
New Review Ordered
Another review of the parole decision is now set to be carried out with a newly-appointed Commissioner, former Supreme Court Justice David Lovell, on the task. Vlassakis will remain in custody throughout this time.
The killer appeared at the hearing via video link and showed no visible reaction to the complex judgment, with its implications on his continued imprisonment not immediately clear. Vlassakis, just 18 at the time of the murders, was a key prosecution witness against the other Snowtown killers, John Bunting and Robert Wagner. He was given a 26-year non-parole period due to his role in convicting Bunting and Wagner, who were found guilty of 11 and 10 murders respectively.
