Hoddle Street killer Julian Knight is on the move

One option for Knight under consideration is the more relaxed cottage accommodation at Castlemaine’s Loddon Prison.

According to Corrections Victoria, Loddon is “a campus-style prison within a secure perimeter. The landscaped grounds, modern buildings and wide range of programs and activities provide an environment, which as closely as possible, resembles those available in the general community.”

There are two forms of accommodation at Loddon. “Four-bedroom, self-contained units with a fully equipped kitchen, laundry, communal bathroom and living room.”

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Or: “Three two-storey single cell blocks divided into units of 34 or 36 cells, each with a toilet, shower, hand basin, bed, desk, chair, shelving, bed light, notice board, mirror, floor carpet, window, curtains, television, heating and intercom.”

Asked which prison Knight will continue to rot in, Corrections Victoria responded with its traditional straight bat.

“More than half of the prisoners located at Port Phillip Prison have been transferred to other prisons, this is a staggered process that will continue until the end of the year. For security purposes, we cannot provide information to media on where prisoners are placed.”

For a bright man (he says that shortly after the massacre his IQ was tested and was scored at 132, in the top 2.2 per cent of the population and given a rating of “superior”), Knight lacks self awareness.

He was particularly annoyed when someone had the audacity to knock back his application to be a mentor for young prisoners. So a mass murderer who will never be released wants to teach prisoners on how they should prepare for life on the outside.

They would be better off watching The Shawshank Redemption, Cool Hand Luke, The Great Escape and Hogan’s Heroes on high rotation.

Knight is fastidious. His cell is obsessively organised with everything having a place, so much so that the mischievous sneak in to move objects just to annoy the man who loves to annoy.

Yet after he went on his murderous rampage, the organised Knight told police he managed to mislay the one round of ammunition from his pocket he intended to use to shoot himself. Instead, he threw down his gun and surrendered. It tells us much about Knight and the arresting police that he was taken alive.

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Inside the prison, Knight is a master manipulator. Port Phillip staff say he knows how to play the angles and as a chronic complainer, gets an easy run because staff don’t want to get caught in his spider web of complaints.

“If you try to discipline him, he whips out a notebook and starts taking notes to be used in a complaint. It’s just not worth it,” one said.

“In his cell they have found a mobile phone, USB sticks, a mini camera and micro recorder and pornography.”

“He thinks he is the king, but he isn’t and many prisoners hate him because he gets so many special privileges they don’t.

A staff member said officers felt pressure not to lay charges against inmates but to try and “just get along.”

The fact that Knight is unlikely ever to be released is just. The way he is being kept in prison is not. Retrospective laws that re-sentence inmates are dangerous, taking decisions from the courts and into parliament.

Back when Knight was given a minimum sentence of 27 years, the prosecution didn’t even appeal.

On the Julian Knight-approved website (yes, that’s right) he is described as a political prisoner. To prove the world is barking mad, his so-called supporter base says, “We term ourselves the Knighthood.”

They go on: “Julian Knight is a classic larrikin, like the best of Australian soldiers in history.”

Knight is not a man who on one tragic day lost his mind and started shooting. We know he fantasised two years before Hoddle Street of a bullied victim coming back to kill in an act of vengeance.

While he was a student at Melbourne High, he wrote and illustrated a four-part cartoon called Seymour The Six Million Dollar Mouse.

Julian Knight’s cartoon. Was it a rehearsal for the real thing?

The six-million reference is about the television show The Six Million Dollar Man about an injured astronaut who is bionically rebuilt to become a superhero, and Seymour is the town next to the Puckapunyal Army base where his adopted soldier father was stationed.

Seymour is shot, recovers and goes on a shooting rampage killing 16 people.

I showed it to a psychologist who told me: “It looks very much like a rehearsal.”

Is Knight a political victim? Yes. He was given a minimum term of imprisonment and then the government of the day changed the rules.

Has he reformed?

Certainly, he has expressed remorse for his crimes. “The Hoddle Street shootings were despicable, cowardly and senseless … My crimes were also heartless because I gunned down innocent people going about their daily lives,” he wrote.

Yet, a prison officer says that during the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre where 35 people lost their lives, Knight sat watching the television then stormed off in a huff when he realised he was no longer Australia’s biggest mass killer.

‘He thinks he is the king, but he isn’t and many prisoners hate him because he gets so many special privileges they don’t.’

The evidence suggests he is a leopard who uses foundation to conceal his spots. He remains desperate for attention and wants to be a person of influence.

First it was through an endless stream of legal action, where he would often represent himself. That is until he was declared a vexatious litigant and was in effect banned from court.

He also attempts to interfere with police investigations, tipping off his favourite inmates on likely informers who may have turned on them. It comes as no surprise that one of those alleged informers was an inmate he fought on June 23, 1993, in Pentridge’s notorious H Division.

Knight writes to his mates inside and outside prison using his own letterhead, Mr Julian Knight, Port Phillip Prison, with a logo, usually a dark figure attached to a ball and chain.

He has also used an image of Homer Simpson and, more disturbingly, two armed soldiers on patrol with the caption, “Call of Duty2”.

He monitors my regular crime segment on 3AW’s breakfast program, and if it is of interest to other prisoners, will transcribe the conversation and send it to the subject.

Julian Knight writes to another inmate about my radio segment.Credit: Suppled

Nothing wrong with that, but he insists on including my (incorrect) home address. And for some reason, he refers to my father, his rank when he was a police officer plus his date of birth and date of death.

He attempts to pass this information to some of the worst criminals in the state. Decades ago he wrote to me asking if I would ghost-write his book. When I declined, he wrote to Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read suggesting he was being ripped off by his publishers (colleague Andrew Rule and me).

Should Knight be transferred from maximum security Port Phillip to the more relaxed Loddon Prison?

How he does his time is decided by his prison behaviour not the vile crimes he committed nearly 40 years ago. He might be a manipulative man but is he a dangerous one?

There are three simple questions. Is he at risk from other inmates at Castlemaine? Is he a risk to prisoners at Castlemaine? Will he try to escape from Castlemaine?

If the three answers are no, he should be transferred to Loddon, despite the inevitable outrage.

Knight, 57, remains supremely fit and may well remain in custody for another 30 years. It is entirely possible that when the sun sets on Knight he will have served 70 years in jail.

That is his punishment.

John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.