Crime Investigations Journalist, News Ltd.
17th August 2017: ‘Hoddle St massacre: Julian Knight to spend rest of his life in prison after High Court ruling’
SOURCE: News, Law & Order, Herald-Sun newspaper
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/law-order/hoddle-st-massacre-dday-for-mass-murderer-julian-knight/news-story/3478f18f25db9e13e4d7bd154d1548fb
MASS murderer Julian Knight will remain behind bars for the rest of his life after the country’s highest court rejected his bid for freedom.
LATEST: Hoddle St killer Julian Knight will spend the rest of his life in jail after a failed bid to have his eligibility for parole reinstated.
The High Court has ruled the amendment to the Corrections Act to prevent Knight getting parole did not interfere with the 1988 court’s ruling, which gave him a minimum sentence.
Knight, who killed seven people in Melbourne’s Hoddle Street in a shooting spree in 1987, injuring 19 others, was two months shy of his earliest release date when Denis Napthine’s government legislated against him in 2014.
He is now doomed to life in prison until incapacitated or near death.
Knight tried to overturn the law designed against him by arguing it interfered with the independence of the Supreme Court ruling, which imposed a non-parole period of 27 years.
“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 High Court ruled today.
Edward O’Donohue, the opposition’s corrections spokesman, said:
“In 2014 the Liberal Nationals Coalition Government took decisive action and passed legislation to ensure that Julian Knight would remain in jail. We welcome the decision of the High Court that upholds the validity of this law. (COMMENT: NO, the High Court of Australia ruled not about the Victorian Parliamentary law passed but of the original Supreme Court of Victoria’s judicial sentencing). It’s time that Julian Knight gave up his endless litigation that achieves nothing but waste taxpayers’ dollars and causes extra trauma to the victims and loved ones of the Hoddle Street massacre.”
Knight has been deemed a vexatious litigant by the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Premier Daniel Andrews said he was pleased with the High Court’s decision.
“I’m always careful not to comment on court matters that are ongoing, but a judgment has been handed down this morning, and I would simply say this is a fantastic outcome for the safety of every single Victorian,” Mr Andrews said.