‘Port Phillip Prison on the verge of riot, says mass killer Julian Knight’
by Alex White
July 3, 2015, https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/port-phillip-prison-on-the-verge-of-riot-says-mass-killer-julian-knight/news-story/fea92c27faf941bef1cd5c249716a9f1 (available by subscription only)
MASS murderer Julian Knight says Port Phillip Prison is on the verge of chaos similar to this week’s rampage by inmates in the Metropolitan Remand Centre.
MASS murderer Julian Knight says Port Phillip Prison is on the verge of a riot similar to this week’s rampage by inmates in the Metropolitan Remand Centre.
“I’m currently sitting in a 1200-bed prison which is in lockdown and on the verge of kicking off here as it did with the MRC,” he told Supreme Court Justice Rita Zammit today.
Knight argued the levy on cigarettes was designed to pay for nicotine patches to help prisoners quit smoking in the lead up to a statewide ban on smoking in prisons, which came into effect on Wednesday. He says the nicotine patches were never received.
The application, made against Port Phillip Prison manager Ian Thomas, was the third by Knight to be dismissed by the Supreme Court in relation to the smoking ban.
He first tried to have the smoking ban overturned, then sought permission for prisoners to use e-cigarettes instead.
Knight, who was declared a vexatious litigant for 10 years in 2004, said he had long been telling the courts what would happen if the cigarette ban was introduced.
“I think Ravenhall says it all,” he said in reference to Tuesday’s riots at the Metropolitan Remand Centre where prisoners overran the facility for 15 hours, leaving a damage bill reportedly up to $10 million.
When lawyers for Mr Thomas sought to have Knight pay costs for the application he told the court to add it to the clean-up bill for the riot.
Knight, 47, murdered seven people and injured 19 more in a shooting rampage in 1987.
He was set to be eligible for parole last year but is now effectively serving a life sentence after the state government introduced legislation to ensure he remains in jail until he dies.
Acting premier James Merlino says damages at the remand centre are still being tallied.
“There has been solid progress with the repair and clean-up, the yard is clean,” Mr Merlino told reporters on Friday. “We don’t know the damage bill as yet. That will obviously be assessed over the coming days and weeks.”
A report on the riots will be handed to the minister of corrections on November 13.
The independent review headed former Deputy Police Commissioner Kieran Walshe will investigate whether authorities were prepared in the lead up to a state wide smoking ban in prison centres.
Police, Corrections Victoria and prison guards and staff will be interviewed. The investigation is ongoing.
Premier Daniel Andrews said all prisoners involved will feel the full force if the law.