Snowtown murderer James Spyridon Vlassakis has been publicly identified for the first time after South Australia’s Court of Appeal revoked suppression orders that had banned publication of his image for more than 25 years.
The ruling was handed down during ongoing court proceedings relating to Vlassakis’ potential release on parole, which is being opposed by the state government.
The court agreed with submissions from South Australian media organisations that the original orders, imposed during the Snowtown murder trials, no longer remained valid.
The suppression orders had prohibited publication of Vlassakis’ image “in any form, including photographs, sketches and illustrations” and also banned “any description” that could identify him.
Vlassakis, now 46, pleaded guilty to four murders and later gave evidence against co-offenders John Justin Bunting and Robert Joe Wagner. His barrister, Lindy Powell KC, argued against lifting the suppression, saying her client’s safety could be at risk because of his cooperation with authorities.
“We say that, as this court well knows, this man spent some five years in solitary confinement as a result of his co-operation,” Powell said.
“Nobody knows what he looks like, and the proper administration of justice would be his ability to reabsorb into the community without his image being projected to all and sundry.”
The court acknowledged those concerns but found they were outweighed by “the public’s interest in Vlassakis’ image being published.”
The case remains tied to a broader legal dispute over parole after the Parole Board deemed Vlassakis eligible for release at the end of his 26-year minimum term, a decision later overturned by the Parole Administrative Review Commissioner.
The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision on the parole challenge.
Source: The Advertiser.
