‘Indefensible’: Murderer accidentally given day release without grieving mother being told

A grieving mother says she was devastated to learn the killer who brutally murdered her daughter had been accidentally allowed day release into the community without her knowledge.

The blunder was only revealed after a member of 20-year-old Adriana Donato’s family believed she had seen Adriana’s killer, James Stoneham, at a shopping strip near the family home.

Grace Donato says she was traumatised to learn her daughter’s killer had been transferred to a low-security centre that allows day release without her knowledge, 10 months before his earliest possible parole.Credit: Alex Coppel

Stoneham, who had meticulously researched how to murder Adriana before luring her to a park and stabbing her with a hunting knife in 2012, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in November 2013 to 19 years’ jail, with a minimum non-parole period of 14½ years.

Adriana’s mother, Grace Donato, a former member of the state government’s family violence Victim Survivors’ Advisory Committee, discovered in early April that Stoneham had been moved from a high-security prison to the minimum-security Judy Lazarus Transition Centre in the CBD.

A relative told Grace Donato she had seen Stoneham walking at their local shopping strip in Puckle Street, Moonee Ponds, near where Stoneham had lived at the time of the offence.

Donato said she was incredulous because even with a sentence discount of 14 months granted to him by the state government due to COVID emergency management during his jail time, Stoneham could not be on parole until mid-December this year.

Adriana Donato was a 20-year-old University of Melbourne student in the last year of a science degree when she was murdered.

“I didn’t believe he could be out in the community. We dismissed [the relative] – we thought she was being ridiculous,” said Donato, who had placed herself on the Victorian Victims Register in February 2025 so she could be notified of any developments in the timing of Stoneham’s parole application.

Donato asked police in early April if it could be true that Stoneham was in the community, and was informed he had been transferred about a month earlier to the Lazarus centre. It has five self-contained units, residents of which can go out while accompanied.

Donato contacted the Victims Register, concerned that Stoneham had been moved to low-security accommodation not far from where her son works in the CBD. After eventually speaking with the assistant commissioner of the sentence management division of Corrections Victoria, Jenny Hosking, she received a written apology.

“I unreservedly apologise for the distress this has caused you and your family and want to assure you that he has been removed from the Transition Centre and will not return,” Hosking wrote. She said Stoneham had only gone out accompanied by staff, and that she had been advised he did not go to the Puckle Street area.

“Corrections Victoria did check the Victims Register twice before progressing the person to the Transitional Centre … We made the error of not checking again just prior to his transfer.”

Donato had joined the register in the interim, with no knowledge Stoneham’s transfer was possible.

“I am devastated, traumatised and angry that this can even happen,” Donato, a former long-term employee of the Defence Department, said. “I think Victorians would be shocked; they need to know this is happening to me and others as well.”

Corrections Minister Enver Erdogan said: “I extend my deepest sympathies to Ms Donato for what has occurred. This is an appalling error and it is completely unacceptable. Corrections Victoria have updated their processes to ensure this can never happen again.”

In sentencing Stoneham, the son of a former VFL footballer, Justice Michael Croucher wiped away tears and described the crime as calculated and sinister, aggravated by weeks of planning and committed in a “chilling” manner.

The transition centre helps reacquaint soon-to-be-released prisoners with community life, and Donato believes that his placement there early this year implies Stoneham’s parole application is likely to be successful even though the date for her submission to the Adult Parole Board, as a registered victim, had not passed at the time.

Prisoners are entitled to up to four days’ sentence reduction for every day they spend locked down in their cells due to health lockdowns, emergencies, disruptions or industrial action. More than 3700 Victorians signed a petition to the Legislative Council sponsored by Liberal MP Renee Heath in October last year demanding violent and high-risk criminals be removed from consideration for the sentence discount for COVID emergency management during their jail time.

“Over the two years that Melbourne and Victoria suffered through the world’s longest COVID-19 lockdowns, thousands of prisoners received more than 360,000 days off their collective sentences. This is equivalent to over 1000 years of jail time,” the petition stated.

James Stoneham is led into the Supreme Court in 2013.Credit: Justin McManus

It demanded that any sentence reduction for emergency management days not reduce the time served by violent or high-risk offenders to less than their minimum non-parole sentence.

The petition had been due for a response by November 15, 2024, but the parliamentary website shows there has been none.

Grace Donato wrote on April 2 to Premier Jacinta Allan, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Family Violence Natalie Hutchins and Erdogan asking why such a large sentence reduction due to COVID should extend to violent criminals, and telling them of her distress that she had learnt Stoneham was in low-security detention.

“I have discovered (on my own accord) that the murderer was transferred to the Judy Lazarus Transition Centre approximately 1 month ago.

“This makes a mockery of the system as the parole hearing has not occurred yet. One would make an assumption that he will be released in December 2025 and my submission to the parole board would be meaningless,” she wrote.

Adriana Donato was left to die in a pool of blood on a gravel path.

“No one can feel the ongoing hurt, despair and devastating impact the murder has had on my family and those close to Adriana.”

She received no reply from any of the ministers until after she emailed them again on Monday, after speaking at Vicki Cleary Day on Sunday. Cleary was stabbed to death at the age of 25 by an ex-partner.

On Wednesday, Donato received a two-line reply from an unnamed member of Erdogan’s staff saying a response to her earlier email was “in process”.

Respect Victoria chair and Monash University family violence scholar Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon said the government’s lack of response to Donato’s emails undermined Victorians’ faith in the justice system.

Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon said it was indefensible that James Stoneham was transferred to a low-security facility without his victim’s family being informed.Credit: Chris Hopkins

“Victim/survivors have the right to feel safe, to be heard, and to be treated with dignity by the systems meant to protect them. That right has seemingly been denied to Grace,” Fitz-Gibbon said.

“For her emails to go unanswered, for her to be left in the dark about Stoneham’s transfer, and for her concerns to be ignored by those in power – this is exactly how trust is eroded in the system.”

Fitz-Gibbon, chief investigator of the National Plan to End Violence Against Women stakeholder consultation, said the decision to transfer a perpetrator of violence against a woman to a low-security facility without informing surviving family members was “indefensible”.

“Grace, a former Victim Survivors’ Advisory Council member, has given so much to improve responses to family violence in Victoria. For her to be treated this way sends an extremely concerning message to all victim/survivors: your safety and voice still come second.”

Fitz-Gibbon said that ahead of Wednesday night’s Safe Steps National Family Violence Remembrance Day vigil for those killed by family violence in Australia, “we must reckon with the fact our systems are still failing those they are meant to protect”.

“Accountability and change must start with listening to those who have lived the system’s failures,” she said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice and Community said on Wednesday afternoon that Corrections Victoria had put additional processes in place to prevent this mistake from happening in future.

“As soon as the breakdown in process was identified, this person in custody was moved to another prison,” the spokesperson said. “We sincerely apologise and deeply regret the distress caused to Ms Donato.”

Grace Donato wants a discount of 14 months on the sentence given to her daughter’s murderer due to COVID lockdowns to be reversed.Credit: Alex Coppel

Donato said she wants the 14-month COVID reduction she was told Stoneham has been granted to be reinstated to his minimum sentence requirement.

“I want that 14 months reversed for him and all other violent offenders who have received this,” she said.

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National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service: 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732)