ADELAIDE — One of Australia’s most infamous criminals, Snowtown serial killer James Spyridon Vlassakis, is set to be released from prison after a high-level administrative review upheld a decision to grant him parole.
The Parole Administrative Review Commissioner, David Lovell KC, has dismissed an application by the South Australian Attorney-General to block Vlassakis’s release. The ruling affirms the Parole Board’s original decision from August 2025, clearing the way for the man who spent more than 27 years behind bars for his role in the “bodies in the barrels” murders to re-enter the community.
Vlassakis, now in his mid-40s, was the youngest of four perpetrators involved in the horrific string of killings that claimed 12 lives between 1992 and 1999. He pleaded guilty to four of the murders: his half-brother Troy Youde, as well as Fred Brooks, Gary O’Dwyer, and David Johnson.
The crimes were orchestrated by ringleader John Bunting, whom a teenage Vlassakis viewed as a father figure. In his ruling, Mr. Lovell acknowledged the influence Bunting held over the younger man at the time, but concluded that the dynamic no longer posed a threat.
“It is clear that this same power dynamic cannot be replicated, given Mr. Bunting was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole and that Mr. Vlassakis is now of a more mature age,” Mr. Lovell wrote in his decision.
The review commissioner pointed to Vlassakis’s conduct during his long incarceration as a primary reason for maintaining the parole decision. Vlassakis was sentenced in 2002 to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 26 years. Throughout his more than two decades in the prison system, he has maintained a clean record regarding violence.
“It must also be acknowledged that Mr. Vlassakis’ demonstrated excellent behaviour while in custody and there is no suggestion that he displayed any violent behaviour during this time,” Mr. Lovell noted. The decision also highlighted that while Vlassakis struggled with “significant” drug issues prior to his 1999 arrest, he had returned only three positive results out of 29 drug tests conducted throughout his sentence.
The Attorney-General had initially challenged the board’s decision, arguing that the severity of the crimes necessitated continued detention. However, Mr. Lovell found that the Attorney-General had failed to establish sufficient legal grounds to overturn the board’s findings.
The Snowtown case, uncovered in 1999 when the remains of several victims were discovered in acid-filled barrels in a disused bank vault, remains one of the darkest chapters in Australian criminal history. As Vlassakis prepares for life outside the prison system, the decision marks a final, controversial chapter in the legal proceedings surrounding one of the four individuals who brought terror to the state of South Australia.
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