Hoddle St killer Julian Knight loses bid to sue Australian Defence Force
Hoddle St mass murderer Julian Knight has lost his bid to sue the Australian Defence Force over claims he was subjected to “acts of bastardisation” while he was a junior staff cadet in the ’80s.
Police & Courts
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Hoddle St mass murderer Julian Knight has lost his bid to sue the Defence Force over “bastardisation” claims.
The Federal Court on Thursday rejected the killer’s attempt to take action against the Defence Force Ombudsman because a similar complaint had already been rejected a decade earlier.
Knight filed a complaint to the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce (the DART) in November 2013 claiming he was subjected to “various and constant acts of bastardisation by senior staff cadets” while he was a junior staff cated at the Royal Military College Duntroon from 13 January 1987 to 10 July 1987.
A month later, on August 9, 1987, Knight took a series of weapons and set up on the nature strip in Clifton Hill, where he launched a terrifying ambush on passing cars, killing and wounding dozens of people.
The DART taskforce was set up in 2012 to grant payments to Defence personnel who suffered sexual and other abuse during their employment.
Those with a “plausible” complaint could be granted a one-off $50k reparation payment, be referred to free counselling, police or the chief of defence to administer disciplinary action, or could participate in a restorative engagement program.
But the killer was found ineligible for reparation payments by the minister, who excluded him due to his convictions over the Hoddle St massacre in which he murdered seven people and attempted to murder a further 46 people.
Knight filed a fresh bid to the Ombudsman in 2023, arguing his earlier complaint hadn’t been “dealt with” because there’d been no consideration whether to award him anything else but reparation payments.
But Justice Catherine Button dismissed Knight’s application in the Federal Court on Thursday, noting the Ombudsman’s submission that it had discretion to decide whether or not to investigate or stop investigating a complaint where it isn’t warranted, having regard to “all the circumstances”.
Her Honour asked the Ombudsman to advise the court by May 14 if he seeks to make an order for costs against Knight.
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