Australia’s most shocking and hated criminals behind bars for life revealed
These are the faces of evil, the men — and one woman — whose crimes were so heinous that they are never to be released from jail. See the list here.
Police & Courts
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Their crimes shocked the state and 76 of the country’s most hated criminals are locked up behind bars for life in NSW.
The number of people serving life sentences, including the first woman to be jailed for life in Australia, has soared since 2015, when there were 51 lifers.
Victims’ advocate Howard Brown said prisoners get better care in jail than outside.
“These people are not dying at a rate we expected they would. They are getting the best health care,” Mr Brown said.
Justice Health, which provides healthcare to prisoners, has an annual budget of around $250 million. “They (prisoners) probably get better treatment than you or I would get,” Mr Brown said.
Aged and frail prisoners condemned to spend the rest of their lives in jail, like notorious killer cop Roger Rogerson, 81, are housed in a dedicated unit at Long Bay Jail called the Kevin Waller Unit after the first NSW State Coroner.
One of Rogerson’s ex-mates, feared gangster and murderer Neddy Smith, died aged 76 of natural causes in Long Bay Prison Hospital last year after being behind bars for decades receiving treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
In NSW, a life sentence has meant just that since Truth in Sentencing laws were introduced in 1999 following outrage that the average time spent in prison for a so-called life sentence was just 13 years.
Lifers like backpacker serial killer Ivan Milat, murderer Daryl Suckling, Michael Murphy, one of the killers of nurse Anita Cobby and the “mutilator” William MacDonald have all drawn their last breaths in a jail cell.
Managing the lifers is a perpetual problem as they are moved from jail to jail to stop them forming associations and getting too comfortable.
Lifers are also kept apart from their co-offenders. “You can’t afford for them to become too comfortable. They will manipulate other prisoners for their own benefit,” Mr Brown said.
Lifers have nothing to lose because they are never going to get out and they are not even offered the carrot of medium security after it was revealed in 2015 that 10 of the state’s most notorious killers had been reclassified as medium- and even minimum-security, despite at least two of them — Suckling, 79, and John Ernest Cribb, 64 — having escaped from jail before.
The lower classifications meant the killers enjoyed new freedoms and privileges, including being able to apply to take self-improvement courses and prison employment.
They were all reclassified and the government vowed it would never happen again, bringing in new laws denying lifers any chance of a cushy life behind bars with a tough new “Lifer” classification approved.
Mr Brown said that was why prisoners were able to have “luxuries” like toasted sandwich makers and TV sets in their cells because it was a method of reward and punishment.
“It’s very difficult to provide lifers with incentives for good behaviour,” he said.
While 76 may be the highest number of lifers since 2015, it is not necessarily a record. There have been over 100 people serving life sentences before.
“There are currently 76 inmates who have received a life sentence,” a Corrective Services NSW spokesman said.
“Under NSW legislation, there are various subgroups within the classification of life sentence, including those who are eligible to apply for a redetermination of sentence or who have received a non-parole period.”
ALAN BAKER AND KEVIN CRUMP
Allan Baker and Kevin Crump, both 72, were jailed for life for the murder of labourer Ian Lamb, 43, and the rape and conspiracy to murder Virginia Morse, 35, who they abducted from her family’s Collarenebri farm house in November 1973.
They have never been convicted over Ms Morse’s murder because she was tied to a tree and shot dead near Moonie over the Queensland border. They will never be released and therefore will never be tried in a Queensland court for the young mother’s murder.
They are among the country’s longest-serving inmates.
Baker is at Clarence Correctional Centre.
ANTHONY SAMPIERI
The first person jailed for life for sexual assault, child rapist and ice addict Anthony Sampieri, 56, died last year in an isolation unit at Long Bay Prison Hospital where he had been treated for liver cancer.
BRONSON BLESSINGTON, MATTHEW ELLIOTT AND STEPHEN WAYNE ‘SHORTY’ JAMIESON
Bronson Blessington, Matthew Elliott and Stephen Wayne “Shorty” Jamieson were all jailed for the 1988 rape and murder of bride-to-be Janine Balding, 21.
At 14, Blessington remains the youngest person in Australia to be jailed for life after the Supreme Court judge said the files of all three killers should be marked “Never to be released”.
Elliott was 16 at the time and Jamieson was 22.
The three street kids, along with two mates, abducted Balding from the carpark at Sutherland Railway Station where she was on her way home to Cronulla.
Blessington, who is at the Mid-North Coast Correctional Centre at Kempsey, has repeatedly failed in appeals to be released.
Jamieson and Elliott are believed to be at Lithgow.
RODNEY FRANCIS CAMERON
Dubbed the Lonely Hearts Killer, Rodney Francis Cameron (aka Rodney Francis Mallard) was jailed for life for the murder in June 1990 of Maria Goellner, 44, who was bashed and strangled in a room at the Sky Rider Motor Inn at Katoomba in the Blue Moutntains.
They met through a Melbourne radio station matchmaking competition.
He had recently been released from jail in Victoria after serving just seven years for the murder of Francesco Ciliberto, 19, who had given him a lift as he fled NSW after the January 1974 rape and murder of Florence Edith Jackson, 49, in Katoomba.
He served just nine years in jail for that murder before being extradited to Victoria where he was jailed for the murder of Ciliberto.
He has since confessed at least one more murder and spent time at Lithgow jail.
LINDSAY BECKETT AND LESLIE CAMILLERI
Two of the state’s most notorious killers, Lindsay Beckett, 48, and Leslie Camilleri, 53, both from Yass, remain locked up in Victorian jails where, unlike in NSW, life does not necessarily mean life.
They abducted, raped and murdered Bega schoolgirls Lauren Barry, 14, and Nichole Collins, 16, who were camping at Tathra, near Nichole’s home.
The girls were subjected to a 12-hour nightmare as the men drove them around southern NSW and into Victoria, where they were drowned and stabbed at Fiddlers Green Creek.
Beckett, who pleaded guilty, was handed two life sentences with 35 years’ non-parole by the Victorian Supreme Court. Camilleri was convicted by a jury of both murders and handed two life sentences without parole.
MICHAEL, LES AND GARY MURPHY, JOHN TRAVERS AND MICHAEL MURDOCH
The killers of nurse Anita Cobby in 1986 remain in maximum security after the reclassification of Michael Murphy to medium security in 2015 sparked community outrage. Murphy, his brothers Les and Gary Murphy, plus John Travers and Michael Murdoch were jailed for life without the possibility of parole for Cobby’s abduction, rape and murder.
Michael Murphy died aged 66 in Long Bay Hospital in February 2019.
Travers is at Wellington Correctional Centre, Gary Murphy and Les Murphy are at Goulburn, and Michael Murdoch has spent time at Lithgow.
ANDREW GARFORTH
Andrew Garforth, 60, is behind bars for life for the murder of schoolgirl Ebony Simpson, aged nine, at Bargo in August 1992.
He abducted Ebony as she got off her school bus and locked her in the boot of his Mazda 808.
Garforth took her to a dam near Wirrimbirra Sanctuary where he raped her, tied her up and threw her in the dam to die.
The Supreme Court judge said his file should be marked “Never to be released”.
He was sent to Goulburn jail.
LIAN BIN “ROBERT” XIE
Former doctor Lian Bin “Robert” Xie, 58, was jailed for life for the 2009 murders of five members of his family, including his brother-in-law Min Lin, 45, his wife Yun Lin, 43, their sons Henry, 12, and Terry, 9, and Yun Lin’s sister Irene Lin, 39.
He had beaten them to death in their beds at their North Epping home and then pretended to discover their bodies.
He was jealous of the success of his in-laws while he had failed in every business he tried to set up since migrating from China in 2006.
SEF GONZALES
Law student Sef Gonzales, 42, was sentenced to life for the July 2001 murders of his lawyer father Teodoro “Teddy” Gonzales, 46, his mother Mary Loiva Gonzales, 43, and his sister Clondine Gonzales, 18, who were stabbed or bashed with a baseball bat at their North Ryde home.
He was locked up in Lithgow jail.
ROGER ROGERSON AND GLEN MCNAMARA
Crooked cops Roger Rogerson, 81, and Glen McNamara, 63, are locked up for life for the murder of student Jamie Gao, 20, and for drug supply.
The notorious detectives had lured Gao to a Padstow storage unit as part of a drug deal.
They then dumped Gao’s body at sea, but they were captured on CCTV both at the storage unit and together in the lift at McNamara’s unit block.
Rogerson is in the aged unit at Long Bay Jail. McNamara is also at Long Bay.
KATHERINE KNIGHT
The first woman in Australia to be jailed for life, abattoir worker Katherine Knight, 67, stabbed her partner, miner John Price, 45, to death in February 2000 before skinning him and hanging his skin on a meat hook over the loungeroom door.
She then cooked parts of his body and intended to serve them up with gravy to two of his children, but the police got there first.
She was placed in Clarence Correctional Centre.
PHUONG NGO
Vietnamese refugee Phuong Ngo, 64, was convicted of staging the murder of Cabramatta political rival, MP John Newman, who was shot dead outside his home in September 1994. Two alleged accomplices were granted immunity from prosecution to testify against Ngo, a Fairfield councillor who owned the local Mekong Club at the time.
It was Australia’s first political assassination.
He has been moved from Goulburn Supermax.
VINCENT STANFORD
School cleaner Vincent Stanford, 31, is behind bars for life for the murder and rape of Leeton schoolteacher Stephanie Scott in April 2015, just days before she was due to marry her childhood sweetheart Aaron Leeson-Woolley.
She was last seen alive working at Leeton High School, and her body was found in the Cocoparra National Park, 70km away.
Stanford’s twin brother Marcus Stanford pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder.
ROGER DEAN
Mass murderer Roger Dean, 46, is serving life for the murders in November 2011 of 11 elderly residents of the Quakers Hill nursing home where he had been working.
Some died in their beds and others in hospital.
Dean had wanted to destroy evidence that he had stolen 230 pain killing tablets which had been prescribed to residents.
He was sent to Goulburn Jail.
MARK VALERA
Serial killer Mark Valera, 43, murdered former Wollongong Lord Mayor and NSW MP Frank Arkell, 63, and Albion Park shopkeeper David O’Hearn, 59, in 1998.
Their deaths were so horrific that detectives initially thought they had been killed as part of a satanic cult.
O’Hearn was mutilated and decapitated, and Arkell had tie pins stuck in his eyes.
Valera told police he had not known Arkell was a paedophile, but thought of him as a “very, very horrible man”, and O’Hearn’s murder was random.
He has been moved from Goulburn Supermax.
CRESPIN ADANGUIDI
Crespin Adanguidi, 44, murdered the wife and children of his lover Raymond Shen, 59, in their Rockdale unit in February 2003.
He bludgeoned to death Shiquin Zhu, 55, and shot Pin Shen, 27, and Christy Bo Shen, 23, in their beds the day after he had attacked Raymond Shen, tying him up and holding him hostage.
Adanguidi, originally from the republic of Benin, was handed three life sentences.
MALCOLM BAKER
Motor mechanic Malcolm Baker is serving life for killing seven people, including an unborn child, in what was known as the Central Coast Massacre in 1992.
He killed his ex-girlfriend, her pregnant sister and their father, and injured their friend, at Terrigal, before moving to Bateau Bay where he killed his own son and two other people.
He has been moved from Goulburn Supermax.
LINDSAY ROSE
Serial killer Lindsay Rose, 67, was jailed in 1998 for life without parole for five murders.
The former paramedic, who was one of the first on the scene of the 1977 Granville train disaster, was a contract killer whose first victims were Billy Cavanagh, 54, who ran an interstate trucking business moving millions of dollars worth of marijuana for underworld boss Robert Trimbole, and Billy’s de facto wife Carmelite Lee, 21, at their home in Hoxton Park. He is in Goulburn jail.
Rose’s accomplice Mark Lewis, 64, is serving life for the executions of his de facto wife Kerrie Pang and a potential witness to the crime, her employee Fatma Ozanol at Kerrie’s Oasis massage parlour at Gladesville in 1994.
He was convicted of murder after arranging for Rose to do the actual killings.
MICHAEL KANAAN
Triple murderer Michael Kanaan, 47, was a thug who joined DK’s Gang run by it’s namesake Danny Karam who ran the cocaine trade in Kings Cross.
One of Kanaan’s victims was his former boss Karam, who was ambushed and shot 16 times in the head outside his Surry Hills unit in 1998.
Kanaan is in Goulburn Supermax.
ADNAN DARWICHE
Gangland killer Adnan Darwiche, 46, is serving life for two murders as part of his family’s feud with the younger members of the Razzak family in Punchbowl in the early 2000s.
Two people were killed when Darwiche and his gang fired 100 bullets into their fibro house at Greenacre in an ‘S’ shaped pattern in case they fell to the floor when the shooting began.
The Supreme Court heard Darwiche had decided against using a stolen rocket launcher in the attack.
Darwiche was sent to Goulburn Supermax.
RAMZI AOUAD
Triple murderer Ramzi Aouad, 38, was convicted along with Adnan Darwiche of the murders at Greenacre, as well as that of another man, and jailed for life.
He’s held in Goulburn Jail.
A third member of the gang, Naseam El-Zeyat, is also behind bars for life for three murders including those at Greenacre.
LEONARD WARWICK
Former firefighter Leonard Warwick’s one-man war against Family Court judges and lawyers between 1980 and 1985 left four people dead and Warwick jailed for life.
His victims were his brother-in-law Stephen Blanchard, Family Court judge David Opas, and Pearl Watson, the wife of judge Ray Watson.
Bitter and twisted, Warwick bombed the house of another judge whose decisions went against him, bombed the Family Court building in Parramatta, and killed a man after bombing the Jehovah’s Witness Hall at Casula.
Warwick is now in Long Bay jail.
SAMUEL BOYD
Spree killer Samuel Boyd was jailed for life after killing four people.
He lost an application to have the life sentence redetermined with a parole period, and then lost an application for parole after offering to undergo chemical castration after being diagnosed a sexual sadist.
His victims included a drinking mate he bludgeoned to death with a hammer, a young mother he killed while working at a house as a pest exterminator, and two of three women at the Glenfield Park School for children with special needs, who he tied up and sexually abused before slashing their necks in 1983.
One of the women survived.
MATTHEW “JAMEY” HARRIS
Wagga Wagga serial killer Matthew “Jamey” Harris, 52, had his original sentence of 40 years in jail increased to life.
In 1998 he strangled to death Peter Wennerbon, the brother of a friend, Yvonne Ford who was killed in her bath, and Ron Galvin.
Harris has been moved from Cessnock Correctional Centre.
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