Jamie John Curtis: Tasmanian murderer has his parole revoked

A Tasmanian man who served 32 years of a life sentence for one of the most heinous crimes ever committed in the state is back off the streets once more. Find out why.

One of Tasmania’s most notorious criminals, who stabbed a man to death after torturing him with boiling water and raping his fiance repeatedly in front of him, has been returned to custody after allegedly breaching the conditions of his parole.

Jamie John Curtis, 66, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 30 years for the 1986 murder of Glenorchy’s Dean Allie, 22, who was stabbed to death after earlier being tortured for up to 12 hours, including by having boiling water poured over him.

Curtis also repeatedly raped Mr Allie’s fiance Tameka Ridgeway, 19, and abducted a 15-year-old school during his reign of terror.

His offending was described by former Chief Justice William Cox as a “sustained course of brutal abduction, assault, sexual abuse and ultimately murder in the vain hope of escaping detection”, which “beggar(ed) belief”.

Curtis was briefly paroled in June 2018 after serving 32 years in Risdon, but he returned to custody in October after he was charged with breaching the terms of his Community Protection Order.

He was granted parole again in early 2021, after the Parole Board concluded the risks posed by Curtis could be mitigated with a “wide range of supports”.

Jamie John Curtis mugshot. Picture: File

However, just a month after Curtis successfully applied to have his electronic monitoring bracelet removed, the murderer, now aged 66, has lost his freedom once again.

“About 8.55am this morning, at a South Hobart residence, a 66-year-old man was arrested on a Parole Board warrant,” Tasmania Police said in a statement.

“The man was returned to custody.”