Notorious hit man may soon be freed after he ‘played court system’

A cold-blooded contract killer described as “one of Australia’s most dangerous men” may soon be out on the streets after he “outsmarted” the justice system.

A notorious Melbourne hit man could walk free as early as next year after winning a ­lenient sentence for providing unreliable information.

Contract killer Jack Price (a pseudonym) was given concurrent 19-year minimum sentences on three murder raps, an arrangement based on his co-operation with police over the infamous execution of gigolo and self-proclaimed vampire Shane Chartres-Abbott.

He was also convicted of the murders of two high-profile gangland figures.

The man, in his 60s, is ­regarded as a manipulative and cold-blooded killer with at least five confirmed victims in a crime career going back to the 1960s.

Former Assistant Commissioner Noel Ashby told the Saturday Herald Sun that Price had manipulated police and “outsmarted’’ the justice system.

“He played the system, there’s no question,’’ Mr Ashby said. “He got a three-for-one deal.’’

Mr Ashby said Price remained “extremely’’ dangerous and would re-establish himself in the criminal underworld if released on parole.

Mark Adrian Perry arrives at the Supreme Court of Victoria. Picture: Nicole Garmston

Warren Shea leaves the Supreme Court of Victoria. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

“A man like him can offer society nothing,’’ he said.

“He is one of Australia’s most dangerous men … he is a danger to Victorians.

“He will be involved in organised criminal activity (if released) because he knows nothing else.

“Who else is going to be hurt or killed (by him)?’’

Critics of the sentencing deal say he should be re-sentenced because he gave unsatisfactory and contradictory court testimony in the Chartres-Abbott case.

Three men, Mark Perry, Warren Shea and Evangelos Goussis, were acquitted of Chartres-Abbott’s murder after a trial in which Price was the star witness.

In 2006 Price unexpectedly confessed to shooting Chartres-Abbott dead outside his home three years earlier.

His earliest release date is May 2023, but he could be eligible for parole as early as next year because of remissions.

When Price wrote “vampire’’ on his hand in front of two detectives visiting him in jail, he sparked a $30m secret probe the following year.

Price would claim he had killed the sex worker on behalf of a vengeful criminal.

But he was not sentenced to an extra day in jail as the triggerman in the Chartres-Abbott ambush after making a series of statements to police.

Former police superintendent Ian Baker is lobbying the Andrews government for Price to be re-sentenced.

Shane Chartres-Abbott.

Mr Baker, who worked in the force’s major crime squads, argues Price’s lenient punishment was struck in prosecution deals in which the veteran criminal manipulated the justice system and his evidence.

He says Price positioned himself as a star witness to reduce his jail time and gain favourable conditions.

But a letter to him from the ­Office of Public Prosecutions said: “The Director (DPP) has considered the matters contained in your correspondence, as well as the relevant prosecution, and determined that there is no basis for seeking to have (Price) re-sentenced.”

Price was an unreliable witness at the 2014 “vampire’’ trial. He cast doubt over the Chartres-Abbott murder case by testifying that Mr Shea did not tell him to kill Chartres-Abbott.

“The exact words that were used I cannot recall. I can’t even say to you now, did he ask me to murder him,’’ he told the Supreme Court. “I walked away from that conversation with the belief that they wanted him harmed.’’

The case remains unsolved.

Sources suggest Price is yet to apply for parole.

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