For serious offences including treason, murder, and commercial drug trafficking, the State Supreme Courts in Australia may sentence criminals to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of at least 10 years, or at least 20 years if the prisoner is convicted of the murder of a police officer or other public official. Life imprisonment is mandatory for murder in Queensland, for aircraft hijacking, and for the murder of a police officer or other public official.
In New South Wales, life imprisonment for murder is generally for the remainder of the life of the prisoner unless clemency is granted by the Governor or Governor-General. The Federal Government can only pursue cases involving a penalty of life imprisonment where the states cannot do so.
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The longest non-parole period imposed is 37 years [1], imposed on Adam Mikhail and his father Frank for shooting dead convicted drug dealer Frank La Rosa and his wife Kim at Perth June 2008. The longest non-parole period imposed for a single murder is 35 years, being served by Melbourne CBD gunman Christopher Wayne Hudson.
The longest non-parole period imposed on a woman is 31 years, being served by Western Australians Jessica Ellen Stasinowsky and Valerie Paige Parashumti, who bludgeoned and strangled their flatmate, Stacey Mitchell, before disposing of her body in a wheelie bin; the non-parole period was originally 24 years, and was increased to 31 years on appeal under new legislation.
In the most extreme cases, the sentencing judge will refuse to fix a non-parole period, which means that the prisoner will spend the rest of their life in prison.
Notorious criminals serving sentence(s) of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole include backpacker serial killer Ivan Milat (New South Wales), serial sex killer Peter Dupas (Victoria), sadistic rapist and murderer Barrie Watts (Queensland), child killer Dante Arthurs (Western Australia), Port Arthur gunman Martin Bryant (Tasmania), and police killer David Eastman (Australian Capital Territory).
There are four women at present serving sentence(s) of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole: cannibalistic husband killer Katherine Knight (New South Wales), black widow Patricia Byers (Queensland), serial killer Catherine Birnie (Western Australia), and Sharyn Ward (New South Wales), who starved her seven-year-old daughter Shellay Ebony Ward to death.
Hoddle Street gunman Julian Knight is serving seven consecutive sentences of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 27 years, as the state of Victoria did not officially have provision for life imprisonment without parole until 1991, and Knight was a young offender, being aged 19 at the time of the murders; due to his age, prosecutors did not make an application to refuse to fix a non-parole period.
Life imprisonment is mandatory for murder. A murder conviction carries a standard non-parole period of 20 years,[2] but the sentencing judge can set a non-parole period of between 10 years and 25 years.
There is also provision for the crime of aggravated murder, which applies in cases of premeditated murder, contract killing, multiple/serial murder, murder of a child under the age of 18, murder in the course of another crime, and the murder of a police officer or other public official. In the case of an aggravated murder conviction, the sentencing judge can either set a non-parole period of at least 25 years, or in the most extreme cases, refuse to fix a non-parole period; the latter option means that the prisoner will spend the rest of their life in prison.
There are nine prisoners at present serving sentence(s) of life imprisonment without parole: five in South Australia (double sex killer Mark Errin Rust, Snowtown serial killers John Justin Bunting and Robert Joe Wagner, serial rapist and violent armed robber Thomas John Armfield, and sadistic rapist Mark Anthony England) and four in the Northern Territory (double sex killer Martin Leach, psychopath and necrophiliac Andrew Christopher Albury, serial pedophile William Gordon Turner and serial pedophile James Bell, also known as "Bear Boy").
The longest non-parole period imposed in South Australia is 35 years, being served by Robert Geoffrey Reardon, who stabbed restaurant owner Abel Debs repeatedly during an armed robbery in 1994 (serial killer James William Miller was sentenced to six consecutive life terms with a non-parole period of 35 years in 1980, but he died of cancer in 2008). The longest non-parole period imposed for a multiple murder (excluding Miller) is 32 years, currently being served by Gerald Mark Preston, who shot dead two men and seriously wounded one in a contract killing in 1996. The longest non-parole period imposed on a woman is 30 years, being served by Michelle Elizabeth Burgess, who with her lover, Kevin William Matthews, set up the contract killing of Matthews's wife Carolyn at West Lakes.
The longest non-parole period imposed in the Northern Territory is 30 years, being served by Douglas John Edward Crabbe, who drove his Mack Truck into a motel bar at Uluru, killing five patrons; the longest non-parole period imposed for a single murder is 28 years, being served by Bradley John Murdoch, who shot dead British backpacker Peter Falconio. No women have yet been sentenced to life imprisonment in the Northern Territory.
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