South Australia court clears parole for Snowtown murders accomplice

An Australian court ruled on Tuesday that James Vlassakis, the youngest of three men convicted in the Snowtown murders, can be released from prison, rejecting an attempt by the South Australia state government to keep him detained.

A three-judge bench of the South Australia Court of Appeal upheld a parole board decision taken last month. The state government had earlier succeeded in overturning a separate parole grant made in December.

Vlassakis, now 46, was 18 when the crimes began in 1998. He pleaded guilty to four murders, among them those of a half-brother and a stepbrother, and later became a key prosecution witness. He received a life sentence with a minimum term of 26 years, which expired in August last year.

The killings spanned seven years. Most of the victims' remains were discovered in 1999 in acid-filled barrels inside a disused bank building in Snowtown, a small town north of Adelaide, giving the case its enduring name, the bodies-in-barrels murders. The crimes and the yearlong trial that concluded in 2003 drew intense national attention and inspired books and a 2011 feature film.

Parole board chair Frances Nelson said Vlassakis had consistently shown remorse and contrition, had not been diagnosed with an anti-social personality disorder and had maintained excellent behaviour in prison. She told reporters the board would not have recommended release had it believed he posed a risk, and said suggestions that he was dangerous had caused needless public alarm.

South Australia Attorney-General Kyam Maher, who challenged the parole decision, said the severity of the offences and their impact on the state justified continued imprisonment. He described the crimes as horrific acts against innocent people that had left a lasting mark on South Australia and deeply affected victims' families, friends and communities, adding that community safety had been the government's primary concern.

Vlassakis was the stepson of the group's ringleader, John Bunting, who targeted people he suspected of being paedophiles or gay and ordered some killings because he disliked overweight people and drug users. Victims' social security payments were stolen. Bunting was convicted of 11 murders and his neighbour Robert Wagner of 10; both had ties to neo-Nazi groups and received life sentences without the possibility of parole. A charge relating to a 12th murder was dropped for lack of evidence.

A further accomplice, Mark Haydon, who admitted helping dispose of two bodies, was freed in 2024 after completing a 25-year sentence, after a jury failed to reach verdicts on two murder counts against him.