Murderer Hugo Rich loses internet bid but keeps stash of legal papers

KILLER Hugo Rich claims his jailers are blocking his efforts to launch a High Court appeal as he plots to win his freedom.

Hugo Rich stays in touch with his legal team via computer in court. Picture: Court illustration

KILLER Hugo Rich claims his jailers are hampering his plan to appeal his conviction in the High Court by attempting to destroy a trove of documents he has amassed behind bars and refusing him access to the internet.

Rich was jailed for life with a minimum term of 30 years after he gunned down Erwin Kastenberger in cold blood after the security guard had handed over $162,000 in cash he was delivering to a Blackburn North shopping centre bank in 2005.

The murderer says he is working on an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court after losing a Court of Appeal bid in 2014.

Erwin Kastenberger, a security guard murdered by Hugo Rich.

Barwon Prison authorities last month ordered the removal or disposal of documents from Rich’s cell and prison storage, ruling the killer’s store of 12 or more plastic property tubs was excessive and in breach of jail policy.

Rich, 65, claims “personal legal papers” can be exempted from the usual “two tub” storage limit and says he has had approval for the collection since 2005 to enable him to prepare for various legal proceedings.

MORE: HUGO RICH LOSES BID TO APPEAL MURDER CONVICTION

The career criminal and jailhouse lawyer claims removing the documents, or refusing to allow him to scan and store them electronically before their destruction, would be “unreasonable” and a breach of his human rights and right to a fair trial.

After pleading his cause via a video-link in the Supreme Court earlier this month Rich secured a freeze on the destruction order pending a full hearing next June.

Jail-house lawyer Hugo Rich (originally known as Olaf Dietrich).

Rich had less luck in a related court matter, losing his challenge to the prison’s refusal to give him limited, supervised, internet access to view even more legal material online.

Inmates are banned from surfing the web because of the risk to prison security and Rich’s jailers refused to make an exception so he could access various case law publications to prepare his High Court application.

Rich first outlined his request in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court in December 2014 but a hearing scheduled for early 2015 was vacated after the murderer claimed authorities were “sabotaging” his efforts by reviewing his entitlement to have a computer in his cell, refusing to allow his existing computer to be repaired and not allowing his reading glasses to be fixed.

In a blow to the killer’s hopes of freedom, Supreme Court Justice Maree Kennedy earlier this month found no evidence Rich’s lack of internet access was preventing him lodging his High Court application, or an affidavit to explain why he had failed to do so within the standard 28-day time limit.

Justice Kennedy said if Rich lodged a successful application with the High Court it would then be a matter for that court to determine what access to the internet he ought to have.

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