Bicycle Bandit Kym Parsons sentenced to 35 years in jail for bank robberies – and is now set to use VAD
The notorious Bicycle Bandit has been given one of SA’s longest jail terms – but will likely serve one of its shortest after getting approval to legally take his own life.
Police & Courts
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The notorious Bicycle Bandit who terrorised 11 banks during his crime spree has received one of the longest sentences in SA history – but a judge has acknowledged the “air of artificiality” about his penalty, given he’s about to die.
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled Kym Allen Parsons’ crimes warranted no less than 85 years jail, reduced to 63 years and nine months for his decades-late guilty pleas.
Justice Sandi McDonald noted state law did not allow for the imposition of crushing penalties, so she reduced Parsons’ sentence to 35 years.
She imposed a non-parole period of 28 years, saying she was required to do so despite the “air of artificiality” surrounding his case.
Outside court, Rose Lindner – one of the bank workers attacked by Parsons – said the sentence did not change the fact he had won.
“Today is a bittersweet day, thanks to SAPOL for never giving up,” she said.
“There is some closure, however the victims are still victims, the banks get the money back, his family get to keep all of their assets and he gets to take his life under his own selfish terms – yet we the victims and our families get to continue to deal with his cowardly actions everyday.
“Victims of this crime are again the losers today.”
Parsons, who is in the Adelaide Remand Centre, was expected to travel to the Flinders Medical Centre following his sentence to access his voluntary assisted dying kit.
Parsons, 73, pleaded guilty to 10 counts of armed robbery, one count of attempted armed robbery, and two firearms offences over his 2004-2014 crime spree.
Those pleas, which ended a 20-year mystery as to the Bandit’s identity, came days after The Advertiser revealed SA Health had given him approval for and access to VAD.
They were the result of a plea bargain under which Parsons agreed to confess, repay the $358,976.90 he had stolen, and stay alive until his sentencing, which was expedited.
In exchange, prosecutors agreed to “return” his $1.5 million estate “to his family without any restrictions”, rather than seek to claim that money as proceeds of crime.
That deal outraged one of Parsons’ victims, who also has terminal cancer, saying it meant he “has won” while she and her peers are left with lifelong trauma.
One of Parsons’ relatives, meanwhile, said the bandit was using VAD “as leverage” and called him “a pig of a man”.
However, that relative said no one in Parsons’ family, including his wife, knew of his criminal life and had been “turned completely upside down” by his arrest.
Parsons’ sentence is one of the longest imposed in SA, exceeding that of some murderers.
Only six people, including the ‘Bodies in the Barrels’ serial killers, have longer sentences.
Parsons’ term is equal to that of Kapunda triple murderer Jason Alexander Downie, and longer than that of delusional assassin Jean Eric Gassy.
In sentencing, Justice McDonald paid tribute to the men and women who survived Parsons’ attacks and endured years of recurring trauma.
She also mentioned the police officer who had to make the choice, during the final robbery, as to whether he risked shooting Parsons and injuring innocent people or holding fire.
She said she hoped his pain was eased by the fact Parsons cut himself during that robbery and the blood he left behind led eventually to his arrest.
“It’s an extraordinary feature of your offending that in relation to two of the banks, you had the audacity to return to the same banks and rob them on multiple occasions,” she said.
“You had realised it might be the same staff there – staff that would be retraumatised by your conduct.”
Justice McDonald said Parsons terrorised his victims by pointing guns at, and in one occasion firing at, them and shouting threatening commands.
She said he menaced them by saying things like, “if I’m going to jail for 20 years, you’re going down with me” and, “it’s going to get nasty, lady”.
“For over 10 years, the world at large considered you to be a respectable man whilst you clandestinely committed these crimes for which there is no real explanation,” Justice McDonald said.
“You saw the terror in your victims’ eyes and yet you went back and repeated your conduct again and again … your conduct was morally reprehensible.”
She said she accepted Parsons’ attempts to atone for his crime were genuine, that his apology was earnest and that he felt both remorse and guilt.
She said she hoped that would in some way help the victims, but it did little to mitigate his crimes.
“You had the opportunity to reflect and desist, you did not,” she said.
“It’s curious in the circumstances that you retained possession of the firearm (used in the robberies) for so many years.”
Justice McDonald said Parsons’ own family were also victims of his deception, and noted his intention to repay the money he stole.
“However, you had the benefit of living off those funds for the past two decades,” she said.
Justice McDonald said Parsons should serve between six and nine years’ jail per robbery, and then reduced that sentence to match the requirements of state law.
“I appreciate there’s an air of artificiality in these circumstances, however it’s an exercise I’m required to undertake,” she said.
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