By May, Mark Ray Haydon will have served his full sentence for covering up Australia’s worst serial killings, in Snowtown.
Haydon was one of four people arrested in 1999 when the bodies of some of the 11 victims were found in barrels, in a disused bank vault, in the state’s mid-north.
Those barrels had also for a time been stored at Haydon’s northern Adelaide home and among the victims was his own wife.
He was sentenced to 25 years in jail for assisting in seven murders, and has twice been rejected for parole but in May, his entire sentence will be complete.
The state government is now seeking legal advice on whether it can use special powers to keep him under permanent supervision once he’s back in the community.
“The snowtown murders were shocking. They were probably one of the most brutal cases we’ve seen in Australian history, ” State Premier Peter Malinauskas said today.
“As a government we’re responding to this, we’ve got a few months of course before the release happens. And the government is actively exploring all legal options available to us, to make sure that the South Australian community is kept safe.”
The main killers John Bunting and Robert Wagner they’re both serving life without parole while a fourth offender is eligible to apply for parole from next year.