‘Bodies in the barrels’ killer James Vlassakis walks from Adelaide pre-release centre

The youngest killer involved in South Australia’s notorious Snowtown murders has been filmed outside an Adelaide pre-release facility after a decision allowing his eventual release into the community was upheld. James Vlassakis was seen walking through the Adelaide Pre-release Centre carpark before getting into a white car and driving away. He later returned to the facility. The 46-year-old was transferred to the centre, which sits alongside Yatala Labour Prison in Adelaide’s northern suburbs, after his parole was confirmed following a lengthy legal battle.

The move marks the next step towards Vlassakis’ eventual release into the community after serving the non-parole period attached to his life sentence. Last year, Vlassakis was granted parole by the South Australian Parole Board. The State Government later sought a review of that decision, but the challenge failed after the Parole Administrative Review Commissioner found the Attorney-General had not established grounds to overturn the ruling. Vlassakis was the youngest of four perpetrators involved in the Snowtown serial killings between 1992 and 1999.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 26 years over his involvement in the murders of Fred Brooks, Gary O’Dwyer, David Johnson and his half-brother Troy Youde. Under the parole process, Vlassakis can spend up to 12 months at the Adelaide Pre-release Centre while the Parole Board monitors his progress and determines the conditions that will apply when he is released into the community. Parole Board chair Frances Nelson KC previously said Vlassakis would be subject to strict conditions. Those include a curfew, restrictions on his movements, random drug and alcohol testing and mandatory psychological intervention.

“He can’t leave the state without Parole Board permission, he can’t contact any of the victims’ families, there are some geographical exclusion areas where he cannot go because of proximity of victims’ families,” Nelson said in September. “He is liable to random drug and alcohol testing, he must obey the conditions at the pre-release centre, he’ll be sent off for psychological intervention.”