Hoddle Street mass murderer sues prison over ‘price gouging’ on phones

Hoddle Street killer Julian Knight is suing Corrections Victoria for ‘price gouging’ prisoners, claiming he and other inmates are being overcharged for phone calls.

Hoddle Street mass murderer Julian Knight in 2012. Picture: AAP

Hoddle Street killer Julian Knight, who murdered seven people in Melbourne in the 1980s, is suing Corrections Victoria for “price gouging” prisoners, claiming he and other inmates are being overcharged for phone calls.

Knight, who gunned down seven and wounded at least 19 others in a rampage at Clifton Hill, in the city’s northeast, in August 1987, is also demanding access to a computer and complaining about a levy imposed on cigarettes.

The 53-year-old has accused prison operator G4S and Corrective Services of “misleading and deceptive conduct, and unconscionable conduct”.

He is seeking an unspecified amount of compensation and declarations from the court that his claims are true.

The claim filed in the Federal Court alleges he and 1100 other prisoners at Port Phillip Prison – Victoria’s largest maximum-­security jail – are in “unequal bargaining positions”.

Mass murderer Julian Knight in his prison cell in 1996.

Citing Australian consumer law in his application, Knight argues that since 1997, the prison operator has profited from price increases of items sold in the prison canteen, and says those profits were not directed to amenities benefiting prisoners.

The prison has been owned and operated by G4S since September 1997.

“The applicant also seeks from the court a declaration that the increase in the price of almost all goods sold to prisoners through the Port Phillip Prison canteen since 1997 constitutes misleading and deceptive conduct, and unconscionable conduct,” the application reads.

Profits generated by these sales were not expended on prisoner amenities but were instead treated as company profits, Knight claims.

Knight also complains about a levy imposed on cigarettes and tobacco from 2004-15, which he says should have been invested towards “quit smoking initiatives”.

Smoking was banned in all ­Victorian prisons in 2015.

Knight leaving the coroners court in July 1988 under heavy police guard. He was 19 when he shot dead 7 people and wounded 19 in Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill, Victoria. Picture: Michael Potter

The bespectacled killer, who has been incarcerated for more than 34 years, says Corrections Victoria is “price gouging” its ­prisoners through their being over-charged to make phone calls.

He is seeking daily access to a computer and printer, as well as an injunction in a bid to have ­LexisNexis Butterworths Un­reported Judgments Disks 1-4 and the Thomson Lawbook Co ­Federal Cases database added to the prison library computer ­server.

Knight was 19 when he took three guns to Hoddle Street and went on a random shooting spree in 1987, intending to kill as many innocent people as he could find.

Six of his victims were aged in their 20s and the other was a 53-year-old fork lift driver on his way to work.

The failed army officer candidate has technically been eligible for parole since 2014 but lost a High Court bid in 2017 to overturn laws designed to keep him incarcerated until he dies.

He has launched numerous legal challenges during his time behind bars and in 2004 was banned from launching legal ­action in Victoria’s courts for a decade after a judge branded him a “vexatious litigant”.