Russell St bomber Craig Minogue’s pen pal reveals friendship and says killer is “bad guy done good”
Russell St bomber Craig Minogue has spent decades behind bars. A mystery Melbourne man reveals new details about the killer’s life on the inside and what it’s like being pen pals with a double murderer.
Law & Order
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The Melbourne man behind Russell St bomber Craig Minogue’s controversial website has slammed proposed new laws to silence the killer.
Computer whiz Lachlan Simpson administers the double murderer’s website, which airs updates on his legal challenges and life behind bars.
He told the Herald Sun that Minogue was “upset” by a state government bid to silence prisoners by banning online communications posted in their name.
“It makes him angry, he thinks it sort of violates his rights and I agree with him,” Mr Simpson said.
He added: “I’m not surprised but I do think it’s pretty rotten.
“Prisoners should still have a voice within society and I guess I say that because they are not given a voice at the ballot box while they are in prison.”
The former Pirate Party political candidate struck up a pen pal friendship with Minogue years ago after being introduced via somebody he met at a party.
Asked whether he would stop the web updates if he faced prosecution, Mr Simpson said: “I’m not going to answer that question.”
He suggested Minogue had a “story” of redemption and inspiration, and could be a “bad guy done good” poster boy, having entered prison illiterate before becoming a self-styled academic and jailhouse lawyer.
“I’m a little bit surprised that both the police force and the state of Victoria don’t use him as an example of how the justice system can be successful in helping criminals become better people,” Mr Simpson said.
“He is not the man who went in. It is safe to say that he could be let out of prison without any cause for concern for the safety of other Australians.”
The state government last year rushed through parliament a new law specifically designed to keep Minogue behind bars indefinitely.
Constable Angela Taylor was killed and 21 others were injured when Minogue set off a car bomb outside the Russell St police headquarters in 1986.
Two years later, he claimed another life in a deadly Pentridge Prison attack on inmate Alex Tsakmakis, repeatedly whacking him with a pillow case packed with 5kg gym weights.
Corrections Minister Ben Carroll said the state government introduced laws earlier this year to crackdown on prisoners who had websites or social media.
Victoria is now working with the federal government and other states on laws to prevent third parties posting on prisoners’ behalf, with a committee of senior prison officials now looking at the issue.
“Posts in prisoners’ names can be distressing to victims of crime and can also threaten the security and good order of the prison system,” Mr Carroll said.
Senior Russell St bombing investigator, Gary Ayres, told the Herald Sun that “knowing what he has done and what he has been like” he believed Minogue still posed a risk.
He said Minogue’s online presence was insensitive to his victims.
“It would be traumatising these people, it just reminds them of what happened,” he said.
Mr Simpson said he “would never presume to know how the victims of (Minogue’s) crimes feel”, but that prisoners still deserved a voice.
“He (Minogue) doesn’t want to chase them down, he doesn’t want to find them,” he said.
“He is sorry for what he did to them, and if they asked him, he would apologise to them.
“But he is not going to go hunting for them so that he can apologise to them. That shows a degree of emotional and intellectual maturity that Craig probably didn’t show when he committed his crime.”
Mr Simpson last wrote to the “incredibly intelligent and thoughtful” Minogue in late July or early August but has not heard from the prisoner since at least May.
The pair chat about music and books, and their communication often ramps up when Minogue prepares for one of his many legal challenges.
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He has previously gone to court after being denied access to tarot cards and an Aldi catalogue, and complained that prison food breached his right to a varied vegetarian diet.
“Almost all of my letters to Craig start with an apology because I’m not as good a friend as I could be, I’m not as good a web admin as I could be,” Mr Simpson said.
“The cold, hard reality … is that I have significant more access to both books and music than he does and he has a lot more time to read those books than I do.
“I send him books once or twice a year for him to read and I send him articles from the newspaper about the state of the world.”