Son of convicted mass murderer Douglas Crabbe welcomes parole recommendation

DOUGLAS Crabbe’s son welcomed the WA parole board’s decision to recommend his father be released from jail

DOUGLAS Crabbe’s son has welcomed the WA parole board’s decision to recommend his father — the Territory’s worst mass murderer — be released from jail.

Anthony Crabbe, 47, who lives in Perth said his father wanted his freedom from Acacia Prison to spend his remaining years with family in WA, including his elderly mother Thelma and his 10 grandchildren.

Convicted murderer Douglas Crabbe.

“I hope he gets out. Everyone deserves a second chance. He’s done his time and he will regret what he did for the rest of his life,” he said. “He’s the shell of the man he was but he’s got a heart of gold and I wish people could see that.

“If he could turn back time, he would. I’ve seen him bawl his eyes out about how much he regrets it.”

Mr Crabbe apologised to the five victims for his father’s crime.

“I’d like to apologise personally to her (Lydia Hannah) and say sorry, meet her and give her a cuddle and really say sorry.”

In 2013, Crabbe was recommended for parole but WA Attorney General Michael Mischin refused to release the convicted murderer from prison. Crabbe, now 67, was initially sentenced to five consecutive life sentences, without the possibility of release for driving the truck through a brick wall at the Inland Hotel in 1983.

Crabbe was later given a 30-year non-parole period by the NT Supreme Court and has since been moved to Perth on compassionate grounds.