South Australia’s Attorney-General has requested a review of the decision to grant parole to Snowtown killer James Vlassakis, the ABC has revealed.
The South Australian Parole Board announced in August that Vlassakis would be released after serving 26 years of his life sentence.
Parole Administrative Review Commissioner Michael David KC confirmed that an appeal against the decision has been lodged, with a directions hearing expected in the coming weeks.
Parole Board chair Frances Nelson KC previously said she considered Vlassakis “genuinely remorseful” and a suitable candidate for release.
Now in his mid-40s, Vlassakis was the youngest of the four men involved in the infamous “bodies-in-the-barrels” murders committed between 1992 and 1999.
He pleaded guilty to four murders and received a life sentence with a 26-year non-parole period.
Vlassakis later became a key witness for the prosecution in the trials of John Bunting and Robert Wagner, who were convicted of 11 and 10 murders respectively and are serving life sentences without parole.
Source: ABC.
