Why Hoddle St killer Julian Knight’s latest court case against prison operators could be his last

Julian Knight could be declared “vexatious” in the Federal Court, a move which would practically bar him from continuing a long-running legal crusade.

Under heavy police guard, Julian Knight, 19, who shot dead 7 people and wounded 19 in Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill in 1987. Picture: Michael Potter

Hoddle St killer Julian Knight’s latest court case against prison operators could be his last, after decades of costly and mostly baseless cases against his jailers.

But Corrections Victoria will not publicly comment on whether it will seize the opportunity to have Knight’s declared “vexatious” in the Federal Court, a move which would practically bar the him from continuing his legal crusade in what is, effectively, the last court that he can still freely lodge a case in.

In a letter to the Herald Sun, Knight said his latest legal fight was not “a minor case about the cost of Mars bars at the prison canteen.”

Knight was sentenced to seven life terms in 1987. He was eligible to apply for parole in 2014, but the Parole Board decided he has no prospect for release in the foreseeable future.

The letter, drafted as he prepared his case, Knight made a series of claims against private prison provider G4S and Corrections Victoria.

He alleges that there had been a 33 per cent increase in the price of canteen goods, that money intended for a quit smoking campaign was diverted, and that phone costs were exorbitant.

“Who, in the community, is charged $7.20 for a 12-minute telephone call to a mobile phone,” he said.

“It is not a minor case about the cost of Mars bars at the prison canteen. It is a case about the ability of prisoners who earn an average of $26 per week to care for themselves in prison and maintain contact with their families.”

Knight said the action, filed in October last year, was not just about him.

“I am the nominal applicant in what is essentially a representative action on behalf of all current and former inmates of Port Phillip Prison,” he said.

Julian Knight in his cell at Port Phillip Prison.

Knight has been locked up since the night he murdered seven people and wounded 19 others in a 1987 gun rampage at Clifton Hill.

Much of his term has been spent in Port Phillip Prison, a maximum security jail in Melbourne’s western suburbs which is the state’s biggest.

Donna Wood, one of the police officers who attended the Hoddle St carnage, said she thought Knight’s many legal actions had come to an end.

“I’m very surprised. I thought that was all finished some time ago. Isn’t he the pits,” Mrs Wood said.

It is understood G4S, the private prison operator which operates the prison, will defend the case, which includes claims of price gouging, vigorously.

Corrections Victoria would not say whether they would defend the case, which has been delayed by the pandemic and which has no future listing dates.