Hindley St motel worker killer Barry John Simper asks court for release from mental health facility 20 years later

A man who killed a motel manager by stabbing him 42 times when he denied him cigarettes has asked to be freed from a secure mental health facility 20 years after the horrific crime.

A man who stabbed a Hindley St motel manager more than 40 times, leaving him for dead, has asked a court to release him from a secure mental health facility nearly 20 years after the horrific attack.

Barry Simper, now grey-haired, faced the Supreme Court on Monday morning via video link from James Nash House.

Simper was found not guilty of murdering 55-year-old motel manager Michael Eldridge by reason of mental incompetence after stabbing him at the Paringa Motel off Hindley St in April 2003.

Simper, who had been released from psychiatric care just six days earlier, stabbed Mr Eldridge 42 times when he refused his request for a cigarette.

He was subsequently ordered to serve a limiting term – a period under mental health supervision equal to a jail sentence – of life.

Simper, who, in 2014, had made more than 300 trips into the community, has now asked the court to release him full time.

Barry John Simper has been detained in James Nash House since 2003 over the murder of Michael Eldridge.

Trish Johnson, for Simper, told Justice Sandi McDonald her client’s psychiatrist was supportive of his application to be fully released from the facility.

“Your Honour, it is our application today for this defendant to be released into the community, and Mr Simper’s psychiatrist has indicated that he is in support of that application,” she said.

Ms Johnson said she would be seeking a three-month adjournment for a report to be prepared in order to assess Simper’s suitability.

Justice McDonald ordered a report be prepared “by a psychiatrist, in relation to the condition of the defendant, and the possible effects of the proposed action on his behaviour”.

Tracey Nelson, for the prosecution, said she was not opposed to further reports being ordered into Simper’s current mental state.

He will return to court in December.

In 2009, Simper began the court process of seeking a transfer out of James Nash House, the state’s highest-security mental health facility, before again applying for release in 2014.