Snowtown serial killer James Vlassakis to be released - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

A file photo of Snowtown killer James Vlassakis in custody. (Supplied)

Snowtown serial killer James Spyridon Vlassakis, who has spent more than 27 years in custody, will be released from prison, after an attempt to keep him behind bars failed.

The SA government had sought to block a Parole Board decision to release Vlassakis, who is the youngest of the four perpetrators of the notorious "bodies in the barrels" killings.

But the Parole Administrative Review Commissioner has upheld the board's decision, saying the Attorney-General had failed to establish that reasons exist to overturn it.

Snowtown serial killer James Spyridon Vlassakis will be released from prison, after a review upheld the decision of SA's Parole Board.

Last year, the board granted his release on parole, but the South Australian government requested a review of that decision.

The Parole Administrative Review Commissioner has now found the Attorney-General failed to establish that reasons exist to overturn the decision of the Parole Board.

"I dismiss the Attorney-General's application and affirm the decision of the Parole Board, dated 5 August 2025, to release Mr James Spyridon Vlassakis on parole," Mr David Lovell KC wrote in his decision.

Vlassakis was the youngest of the four perpetrators of the notorious "bodies in the barrels" killings, which involved 12 deaths between 1992 and 1999.

Eleven of those deaths were later deemed to have been murders, and Vlassakis — who is now aged in his mid-40s — pleaded guilty to four of them.

Vlassakis was 18 when, in 1998, he took part in the murder of his half-brother Troy Youde — a crime he committed at the behest of his stepfather and Snowtown ringleader John Bunting.

Vlassakis later took part in the murders of Fred Brooks, Gary O'Dwyer and David Johnson.

A court sketch of Snowtown killer James Vlassakis from May 2026. (Supplied)

The remains of all four of those victims were found at Snowtown.

In his decision, Mr Lovell referenced the influence of Bunting — a person "he looked up to as a father figure" — over Vlassakis but said there was no danger of that relationship continuing.

"It is clear that this same power dynamic cannot be replicated, given Mr Bunting was sentenced to life — imprisonment without parole and that Mr Vlassakis is now of a more mature age," he wrote.

He noted that while Vlassakis had "significant" drug problems before being taken into custody on June 2, 1999, he had "only returned" three positive results from 29 tests during his time in prison.

"It must also be acknowledged that Mr Vlassakis' demonstrated excellent behaviour while in custody and there is no suggestion that he displayed any violent behaviour during this time," Mr Lovell wrote.

"The Attorney-General conceded this aspect."

Vlassakis has spent more than 27 years behind bars.

He was sentenced in 2002 to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 26 years.