The Hoddle Street shooting spree in Melbourne’s inner northern suburb of Clifton Hill took place on the night of Sunday, 9 August 1987.

Julian Knight was chased down and cornered in an historical blue stone septic night-cart lane way in adjacent Fitzroy North at around 2230 hrs that night; he having no rounds left in his M14 automatic assault rifle.  He also had misplaced his preparatory “suicide round” upon such development – pending capture, such was his state of mind at the time.

He was arrested for the shootings by two police constables of Victoria Police.   Knight was then driven in an unmarked police car to Victoria Police’s St Kilda Road Police Complex by two detective senior constables, where he was interrogated extensively by the detectives and then by the Homicide Squad.   At the time, Knight confessed to police to committing the shooting spree solo – that is, that no-one else was involved.

This interrogation was followed by Knight fully co-operating and volunteering to police a night-time crime re-enactment and a daytime crime re-enactment of the shooting spree, both being videoed by police.  Victoria Police subsequently charged Knight with the murder of one of the confirmed and identified victims, John Muscat, at 12.20 pm on Monday 10 August 1987.

So there was no trial (contrary to Wikipedia’s fabrication by anonymous cowardly authors), because Knight immediately confessed his shooting spree to police.  Knight, caught red-handed, never  contemplated trying to wangle out of what he had done.  Instead he was psychologically prepared for suicide on that night, but he had lost his last “suicide bullet from his hip pocket.

Knight then resigned to the fact that upon his consequential capture and arrest, that he had no option but to comply with following due processes imposed by police prosecution, which endured over the course of the following year [1987-1988].  Knight pleaded guilty to all the crimes associated with the shooting spree, on 28th October 1988 in The Supreme Court of Victoria before Justice George J. Hampel during Knights Plea and Sentence.  Justice Hampel sentenced Knight to seven concurrent terms of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 27 years.

These are the official facts.

Whereas any crap written on this topic on American Jimmy Wales’ Wikipedia website is fabricated vengeance by anonymous cowardly authors and should be ignored and dismissed as ‘fake news’ and ‘fiction’.    This website:  ^https://julianknight.com.au/ is the only official website about former Australian soldier Julian Knight.  It is the only website about this Julian Knight that is authorised by Julian Knight himself.   All other records and media are merely interpretations by others guessing.

How is this?

Well, read this website.  For instance, note the following official tabulated record of the subsequent many legals battles that Julian Knight has brought and fought since not only him copping previously sustaining institutional physical and psychological abuse as an Australia Army trainee Staff Officer Cadet at the Royal Military College at Duntroon in Canberra during seven months  immediately prior to the Hoddle Street shooting spree.  But also after Knight’s imprisonment from his ongoing mistreatment and denial of justice by the State Government of Victoria whilst incarcerated.

We make this .PDF document readable, safely downloadable and then printable publicly – as are all Julian’s directed wishes.

All these court cases listed below reside in the public domain, but so long as you know where to find them.  Instead, on this website, over time we will endeavour to facilitate access to all these court cases by reproducing details of each court case on this website under the menu header ‘Legal Battles‘.

[Note, this embedded 13-page .PDF document below is of a relatively large size of 7.6MB, so it is likely not accessible by using a mobile device such as an iPhone or Android.  Should this document not readily appear by simply viewing this webpage, then we suggest clicking the listed option ‘Open in New Tab’. 

Sentencing Hearing, never a Trial

Upon arrest on the night of the Hoddle Street shooting spree around 10:30pm on Sunday 9th August 1987, Julian Knight quickly confessed to the shootings to Victoria Police at the St Kilda Road Police Complex.

Had Knight not confessed, at the time of his arrest by police Constables Delahunty and Lockman, Knight had his M14 semi-automatic military rifle with him at the laneway off McKean Street in Fitzroy North.  All three weapons (the Ruger semi-automatic rifle, the 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun, and the M14) were all registered to Knight and there was no doubt that he, and only he, had committed all the shootings.

But Knight readily pleaded guilty as soon as he was first interviewed by detectives back at the St Kilda Road Police Complex.

So there was no trial, but rather a hearing in the Supreme Court of Victoria in which Knight pleaded guilty and then followed by his sentencing.

Plea Bargain Deal with the Army

During the hearing process, the Office of Public Prosecutions entered into a plea bargain with Knight before the sentencing.

That please bargain was undertaken by the the Office of Public Prosecutions in cahoots with the Duntroon Commandant, in which the Office of Public Prosecutions agreed with Knight that it would accept and not challenge the Supreme Court judge’s sentencing non-parole term, so long as Knight did not implicate Duntroon’s recent bastardisation treatment as being in an way contributory to his state of mind in connection with the shooting spree.

That was the agreed plea bargain.

Yet since the hearing both Corrections Victoria and the Supreme Court of Victoria judiciary have repeatedly displayed prejudice against Knight by dismissing his right to legally challenge the injustice of Corrections Victoria against him by conveniently branding Knight a ‘vexatious litigant’.   Extremely rare amongst Australia’s prison inmate population, Knight as a prisoner has studied the Victorian laws that apply to him.  Whilst incarcerated Knight has attained a Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University, amongst other tertiary qualifications.

R v Knight – Duntroon’s Conditional Plea Bullying

[The following is an extract of Julian KNIGHT’s records as part of his Personal Account of Duntroon Bastardisation submitted to the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce (DART) dated 26 November 2013]

KNIGHT  (in his own words):  

 

“As part of their investigation into my background, Victoria Police obtained statements from my ICT instructor (at Duntroon), Sergeant Kim HOGAN, and from a 3rd Class cadet in my section, Staff Cadet Christopher WHITTING (CSC No 5336).

As part of the preparation of my defence, the Legal Aid Commission of Victoria used a private investigator to obtain statements about my time in Canberra from Meg RUMMERY, Liz GLOVER, Staff Cadet Christopher WHITTING and ADFA Officer Cadet Dechlan ELLIS.

On 6 June 1988, the Presentment against me was filed in the Supreme Court of Victoria at Melbourne (Case No T557 of 1988). I was formally charged with 7 counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder.

In early October 1988, following negotiations with the Office of Public Prosecutions, it was decided that I would plead guilty to all charges in the Presentment filed against me (7x counts of murder and 46x counts of attempted murder).  It is my understanding that these negotiations involved input from the Army. Part of my plea agreement with the Crown and their main condition was that no evidence of the bastardization I had experienced at Duntroon would be led during my plea hearing. In return, the Crown undertook that it would not oppose the setting of a minimum term to the Life sentences I was certain to receive. It was made clear by the Crown that if we went back on this agreement, by raising the issue of bastardization at Duntroon, the Crown would renege on its promise not to oppose the setting of a minimum term and would treat the plea hearing as a contested proceeding.

On 28th and 31st October 1988, my plea hearing was held in the Supreme Court of Victoria at Melbourne before the Honourable Justice George HAMPEL. The Crown was represented by Senior Crown Prosecutor John “Joe” DICKSON QC, with Julian LECKIE as junior counsel, instructed by Peter BUCKLEY, Solicitor to the Director of Public Prosecutions (“DPP”).

My defence was conducted by Robert RICHTER QC, with Richard PIRRIE as junior counsel, instructed by Michael “Mick” O’BRIEN, the then Associate Director of the Criminal Law Division of the Legal Aid Commission of Victoria.

My plea hearing was attended by the CO (Commanding Officer) of the CSC (Royal Military College Corps of Staff Cadets), Lieutenant Colonel David KIBBEY, and an Army legal officer.  Both were dressed in civilian attire, sat with the Crown prosecutors and did not approach or speak to me.  My time at Duntroon was addressed briefly during the first day of my plea hearing (Ref: R v Knight, Supreme Court of Victoria, transcript, Friday 28 October 1988, pages 20-23 – See Attachment 8), but no acts of bastardization were detailed.

[Knight honoured his plea bargain agreement]

The bastardization I was subjected to at Duntroon was, however, detailed in the report of forensic psychiatrist Dr David SIME tendered to the Court.  I have attached extracts from the conclusion section of Dr SIME’s report (Attachment 7), and that from the report prepared by forensic psychologist Tim WATSON-MUNRO (Attachment 6).

On 10 November 1988, I was sentenced by the Honourable Justice HAMPEL in the Supreme Court of Victoria to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole term of 27 years.

(Ref: R -v-Knight [1989] VR 705, www.lexis.com (Research Ref: 1988 VIC LEXIS 530).

In sentencing me His Honour said (at 706):

“In 1986 you joined the Army Reserve and later that year were accepted at Duntroon military college where you commenced as a Cadet in January 1987.  Your adoptive father was a career army officer.  Although your adoptive parents separated when you were about twelve and you felt rejected by your father, nevertheless you admired him and wanted to be like him.  You have always wanted to be a soldier and getting into Duntroon was the ultimate achievement for you.  In fact your time there turned out to be one of a series of events which, according to the evidence of the experts, contributed to your final inability to cope.

You did not do well at Duntroon and could not cope with the pressures of life and discipline at such an institution.  Your perception was that you were ill-treated and dealt with unjustly.  You clashed with your superiors and ultimately, as a result of an incident in which you stabbed a sergeant with a pocket knife, you had to leave Duntroon and return to Melbourne in early July 1987.”

My Earliest Eligibility Date (EED) for release on parole is 8th May 2014.”

~ Julian Knight, 26th November 2013.

 

Whilst serving his deserved out sentence for his shooting spree in prisons (plural), he has regretted his heinous crimes, apologised directly to the victims’ families, educated and redeemed himself over his minimum non-parole term of 27 years and beyond whilst incarcerated.  He did his time and punishment.

But justice has not prevailed in prison.  Julian has been mistreated and legal justice has been usurped by an unjust politically motivated witch hunt against him.

But Knight is a natural fighter.   It is why at a young age he signed up to serve his country, Australia, in the Army.  At age 5 (1973) his deployed Army officer father enlists Julian in the Victoria Gun Club Primary School in Hong Kong. At age 10 (1978) back in Melbourne Julian joins the Cubs and just a year later rises to the rank of “Pack Leader” in the Scouts.  His father then buys him air rifle for his 12th birthday (1979).  Julian at 14 (1982) joins the school cadets, and the whilst still at school in 1984 (age 16) joins the Army Reserve at Puckpunyal, and by 1987 is accepted into Duntroon at the minimum age of 18.

 

If the Army’s officer training at Duntroon had lived up to its marketed recruitment promises pre-1987, Knight, without enduring Duntroon’s institutionalised bastardisation dispatched on junior staff cadets by senior staff cadets,  most likely would have excelled in Army Officer Training.

But ignorant shock jock Neil Mitchell couldn’t give a shit about how a intelligent young soldier could be driven so manic as to commit Hoddle Street.

Knight in combat training displaced total dedication and no fear.  He would have the gone on to graduate from Duntroon as a Second Lieutenant and served his country as an exemplary Infantry field officer in combat missions abroad with a distinguished active combat service record over the past three decades, probably attaining the rank of Major.  In this author’s view, Knight would have been the fearless legendary Aussie larrikin Albert Jacka of Australian military heritage.

 

But when a dedicated trained army soldier is sadistically tormented by his seniors to the point of psychosis, Hoddle Street happens.  Victoria Cross recipients are absolutely brave and self-sacrificing, but they are trained killers, who deserve respect not ridicule, unless the Army invites unspeakable backlash.

Knight, since his incarceration has rightly challenged the illegitimate powers that be whilst in prison over various injustices.

This section of this dedicated website documents all the legal battles that Julian Knight has encountered or initiated.  It starts with R v Knight from 1987 concerning Army Officer Staff Cadet Knight’s stabbing of his superior and lead tormentor whilst training at RMC Duntroon in Kokoda Company – 1st Class Commanding Under Officer, Staff Cadet Philip Reed.