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The Russell Street bomber is attempting to launch a class action on behalf of some of Victoria’s most dangerous criminals over conditions at the state’s new $1 billion jail.
Craig Minogue, a self-proclaimed jailhouse lawyer, is seeking to slash the jail terms of at least 11 prisoners in maximum security, by accusing the Victorian government of human rights abuses while they were temporarily housed in a high-security unit at the new Western Plains prison in Lara, north of Geelong.
Minogue launched the Supreme Court challenge in May and has since gathered support from fellow inmates – among them murderers, gangland figures and violent offenders – who were held at the high-security 44-bed Karlton unit between April and July.
The inmates were temporarily sent to the new prison – which formally opened in July, though construction was completed in 2022 – in April after staff and prisoners were evacuated from Barwon Prison due to a suspected gas leak.
This masthead revealed in August that notorious criminal Christopher Dean “Badness” Binse was among two high-security prisoners suing the state over prison conditions following their stay at the Karlton unit. Another inmate, Alexander Semaan, made near-identical claims in his case for his stay at the neighbouring Barwon’s Melaleuca unit.
Another seven maximum-security prisoners have launched near-identical proceedings, including Ramazan Acar, who stabbed his two-year-old daughter to death in 2010; Daniel Treasure, jailed for 20 years for murdering a drug dealer after posing as a woman; and Timoteo Timoteo and Ocean Kidwell, the two men who attempted a daytime execution on the M80 freeway in Melbourne’s northern suburbs last year.
Russell Street bomber Craig Minogue will never be released from prison, but is fighting for a reduction to other inmates’ sentences.
Court documents obtained by this masthead detail how Minogue, who was jailed for life in 1988, orchestrated the flurry of legal cases from behind bars by sending open letters to fellow inmates and offering to assist them launch their own action.
Minogue murdered police officer Angela Rose Taylor and injured 22 others in a car bomb in Russell Street in 1986. Since then, he has launched a series of court appeals against the Victorian government’s efforts to keep him behind bars, with varying success.
Minogue and the other inmates have argued the cell yards and exercise yards at the Karlton unit were confining to the point that it denied their right to an hour of open air each day, which breached the Charter of Human Rights.
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“A day in the cell in the Karlton unit of [Western Plains] felt like a 24-hour lockdown day at Barwon Prison,” Minogue said in his affidavit.
He claims the roof prevented any direct sunlight from entering both the cell yard and exercise yards. “This is an enclosed space in every sense of the word ‘enclosed’, it is not in the least bit open air,” he said.
Each prisoner is asking for the court to make a range of declarations, including that the exercise yards at the Karlton unit are non-compliant with the human rights charter.
In September, a judge refused to allow Minogue to run the case as a class action. Minogue is appealing that decision and his case will be heard in December.
Minogue, 63, and fellow inmate Shane Hummer – a career criminal who has spent nearly his entire adult life in jail – wrote an open letter to other inmates jailed at the unit around the same time, outlining their intention to fight for a reduction to their prison sentences.
Under Victorian law, prisoners are eligible for a maximum four-day sentence reduction for each day spent in emergency or deprived environments. These are known as emergency management days (EMDs).
“The prison system is arguing that our cases should not be allowed to benefit any other prisoner because there is no evidence that other prisoners [want to complain] about the yards in the Karlton unit or get the EMD’s [sic]. So [we ask if] you will support us in the case we are bringing,” Minogue wrote in the July letter.
The letter instructs inmates to write to Minogue “as soon as you can” about their experience in the Karlton unit.
“If you want, Craig can do the documents for you to take your own case to the court.”
The two men who attacked gangland figure Tony Mokbel, Teira Bennett and Eldea Teuira, responded to the letter, as did serial rapist Vinod Kumar; Carlos Lam, who attacked a prison guard; and Bassam Tiba of the notorious Tiba crime family. But so far, they have not launched their own proceedings.
The construction of Western Plains Correction Centre in Lara cost $1 billion.Credit: Photograph by Chris Hopkins
Binse said in his affidavit: “I did not feel the sun on my skin as the roof of the yards are fully covered by iron sheeting, thick bars, and some tightly woven mesh covering which allows very little light to come through.”
Tiba said that the lack of gym and kitchen, as well as the limited phone calls, made him feel lonely, depressed and, at times, suicidal.
Another inmate said the unit was a “waste of taxpayers money”, saying there were daily issues with lights, toilets and ventilation.
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Treasure said: “The exercise yards are the worst I’ve ever been held in. Where I’m totally 100 per cent blocked from sunlight as roof is all concrete slab as well as the walls are one end with a mesh cage.”
Minogue, a serial litigant, has launched five other proceedings in the Supreme Court in the past two months. One case levels accusations of inappropriate treatment from nurses while in solitary confinement.
In another, Minogue alleges guards unfairly seized two packages which contained the first three seasons of Star Trek television series and a CD titled I’ve Tried Everything but Therapy.
His third case relates to six books he says were unlawfully confiscated. The contraband books included titles Word for Dummies, Windows 11 for Seniors, and the eighth edition of Computer Basics Absolute Beginners Guide.
In his most recent case, launched this month, Minogue is demanding the prison respond to his request to downgrade his security classification.
Through this lawyer, Minogue told The Age he was fighting to have the matters heard as a class action. He confirmed none of the prisoners joining the legal fight are currently housed at the Karlton unit.
He said some of the unit’s “teething problems” had been addressed. “But the physical conditions and steel infrastructure are not compliant with [the Human Rights Charter] – these remain a serious problem that cannot be fixed, except by demolishing the yards.”
A Department of Justice spokesperson declined to comment, saying it would be inappropriate to comment on ongoing court proceedings.
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