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Snowtown Killer James Vlassakis Leaves Prison on Parole for a Pre-release Centre

After a year-long fight over his parole, the youngest Snowtown killer moved to the Adelaide Pre-release Centre. On October 8 he was seen in public for the first time.

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Illustration of a barred prison gate in a concrete wall on a foggy morning, with two men seen from behind. Not the actual centre.

On September 23, 2026, after more than 26 years in custody, James Spyridon Vlassakis was moved out of a South Australian prison and into the Adelaide Pre-release Centre, which stands beside Yatala Labour Prison in the city's northern suburbs and exists to help prisoners make the passage from custody to the community. He is 46. He will live there for up to 12 months while the Parole Board watches his progress and decides what conditions he must keep once he is released into the community.

The move ended a fight over his freedom that had run for more than a year. The board granted him parole on August 5, 2025, once his 26-year non-parole period had been served. The state government challenged the decision, and in December 2025 a review commissioner overturned it. That ruling did not hold. On September 15, 2026, the Parole Administrative Review Commissioner, David Lovell KC, found that the Attorney-General had failed to establish any reason to overturn the board, and the parole stood.

The board's chair, Frances Nelson KC, set out the terms in September. "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," she said. He is liable to random drug and alcohol testing, is under a curfew and restricted movements, and will be sent for psychological intervention.

On the morning of October 8 he was filmed in public for the first time. He walked through the centre's car park with another man, the two got into a white car and drove off, and he was seen returning later that morning. He did not answer reporters' questions; Nelson confirmed that day that his conditions forbid him to speak to the media. A government spokesperson said he "remains a life-sentenced offender" who would be "subject to strict conditions for the remainder of his life," and that any breach could return him to custody.

Vlassakis was 18 when John Bunting, his mother's partner, drew him into the killings. He pleaded guilty to four murders: those of his half-brother, Troy Youde, and of Fred Brooks, Gary O'Dwyer and David Johnson. His evidence then helped convict Bunting and Robert Wagner, jailed for 11 and 10 murders, and their accomplice Mark Ray Haydon, who was released in 2024 after serving 25 years. Twelve deaths between 1992 and 1999 were linked to the group, and in 1999 eight bodies were found in barrels in the old bank building at Snowtown.

For the families, the pictures reopened everything. Ron Lane was about seven when he last saw his uncle, Barry Lane, also known as Vanessa, whom Bunting and Wagner killed in October 1997; Vlassakis had no part in that murder. Lane remembers drives together, fish and chips, his uncle pushing him on a playground swing. Seeing the images, he told the ABC, "is a shock to the system and gives flashbacks on why he was in [prison]." He fears running into Vlassakis by chance. "As we all know, Adelaide is very small and you can just about bump into anybody," he said. "This guy should have got 100 years behind bars for killing four victims."

What this story covers. It draws on ABC News reports of September 15 and 23 and October 8 and 9, 2026. The parole decision and its conditions are as the review commissioner, the Parole Board chair and the state government described them to the ABC. ABC reports give the year of his sentencing differently, so it is left out here. Nothing is said about where he may live after the centre; his conditions keep him away from areas near victims' families. The earlier ruling against his release is covered in the December 15, 2025, story linked below.

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