A man who murdered five people in a truck crash near Uluru 40 years ago has been approved to take part in a pre-release program which would bring him a step closer to parole.
Key points:
- Douglas Crabbe is serving five consecutive life sentences over the attack, one for each of the people he killed
- The NT government has previously urged for him to remain behind bars
- He has been eligible for parole since 2013, but has been denied twice
Douglas Crabbe has spent the last four decades behind bars after crashing his semi-trailer into the Inland Motel in Central Australia in the early hours of August 19, 1983.
Crabbe was later found guilty of murder and handed five consecutive life sentences by the Northern Territory Supreme Court.
He was moved to the Acacia Prison near Perth in 2005 and became eligible for parole in 2013.
He has made two parole applications since then but both have been denied.
In a statement provided to the ABC on Tuesday, WA Attorney-General John Quigley said he had approved Crabbe to participate in a "re-socialisation programme" [RSP] on the recommendation of the state's Prisoner Review Board.
"There is no doubt that the crimes committed by Crabbe were horrific and have had long-lasting and devastating impacts on the victims and their families," Mr Quigley said.
"Certainly, their views weighed heavily in my decision to accept the Prisoner Review Board's recommendation for Crabbe's participation in [an RSP].
"It is not a decision I made lightly."
Mr Quigley said the rehabilitation program would be undertaken "in a minimum security prison setting" and would allow Crabbe to prove he was able to reintegrate with society.
Scars remain after Crabbe's attack
On the night before the attack happened, Crabbe had been ejected from the Inland Motel for being intoxicated, before he climbed behind the wheel of the truck.
David Seng, 24, Adrian Durnin, 21, Helen Fuller, 22, Patricia Slinn, 45 and Leslie McKay-Ramsay, 35, were killed either immediately or as a direct result of injuries sustained by the road train smashing through the pub.
First responders described the scene as "absolute carnage".
When Crabbe first became eligible for parole in 2013, the territory government pleaded with the then-WA attorney-general, Michael Mischin, to block his release.
With Crabbe up for parole again last year, Bernadette Schiller — who was in the motel at the time of the crash — wrote to Mr Quigley and WA Premier Mark McGowan in August last year urging them not to approve his release.
She said she still suffered from PTSD and anxiety from the attack.
"The thought of this is so traumatic for me," she wrote at the time.
"He destroyed lives and families, there is to this day many people who are left in their own prison caused by Crabbe."
On Tuesday, Ms Schiller said she had not been expecting this outcome.
"I am in total shock about this, as one of [Mr] Quigley's election promises was that mass murderers and serial killers would not be eligible for parole," she said.
"John Quigley has broken a promise as far as I am concerned."
She also said she had had no prior warning.
"At no stage has he had a [conversation] with myself or [other survivors] in regards to Crabbe being put into the re-socialisation program," she said.
"He has answered none of my letters or emails."
In his statement, Mr Quigley noted that, "in sentencing Crabbe, the Court clearly contemplated parole, making him eligible for parole after 30 years".
He said participants in re-socialisation programs were "monitored very closely" and that some prisoners who completed it were still denied parole.