Seventy-two-year-old prison escapee John Killick has lost his Supreme Court bid to avoid extradition to Queensland over a parole violation 21 years ago, but says he will continue his fight for freedom.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Justice Carolyn Simpson this morning rejected an appeal by Killick against an order that he report to the Queensland Parole Authority who may force him back into custody, where he spent more than 15 years for armed robbery and a daring prison escape in 1999.
However, in refusing to accept Killick's claim that the extradition push was an "abuse of the judicial process" Justice Simpson acknowledged that such an argument could be, and was more properly made in a Queensland Court.
She ordered that the 72-year-old report to the Queensland Parole Authoity, but gave him two weeks to do so, continuing bail so that he could prepare for a possible challenge in that state.
Speaking after the decision, the septuagenarian's solicitor Eidan Havas said he was "working with a team of solicitors in Queensland to consider a judicial review of the cancellation of parole". He also raised the prospect of an appeal to the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal.
"The decision wasn't the outcome we were hoping for - we need to review the judgment to see if there's any rights of appeal."
Mr Killick said he was disappointed but not surprised by the decision.
"I've left myself open to this for what I've done in the past," he said.
"It's been great being out...this has been hard on my family."
Killick achieved international notoriety in 1999 when his Russian girlfriend, Lucy Dudko, hijacked a helicopter and plucked him from the exercise yard of Sydney's Silverwater prison, where he was serving time for armed robbery.
Now that the septuagenarian has finally served his sentence and been released, Queensland authorities want him extradited back to their state for a breach of parole committed 21 years ago, before the escape.
Last month, the police won the right to have Killick extradited after a hearing in the Downing Centre Local Court and immediately sought to have him returned to custody.
However, his lawyers kept him out of jail ahead of their appeal to the NSW Supreme Court.
Mr Killick's team argue that the warrant for extradition was invalid because it was not issued for more than five years after the alleged breaches of parole took place, and it failed to set out what those breaches entailed.
They say Mr Killick has been rehabilitated and should be allowed to return to society.
