‘Killers on dating sites and sex with hookers’ – inside Melbourne’s Thomas Embling hospital

Some of Australia’s most dangerous monsters are allegedly having sex with prostitutes, on dating sites and harassing their victims while supposedly locked-up, according to a whistleblower inside a notorious hospital for the criminally insane.

The whistleblower claims the Thomas Embling Hospital patients are catered to with sex workers on and off premises and have access to mobile phones when routinely free on day release. 

The extraordinary claims come amid public outcry over reported plans to release killer Henry Hammond on supervised day release just 12 months after he was sent to the hospital for 25 years.

Hammond bashed Melbourne woman Courtney Herron to death in a park in May 2019 in a crime that shocked the nation.  

Responding to the whistleblower’s claims, a spokesperson for Forensicare – the government body that operates the hospital north-east of Melbourne’s CBD – denied sex workers were entering the premises. 

Courtney Herron was savagely beaten to death by Henry Hammond, who is trying to gain approval for day release from Thomas Embling 

Thomas Embling Hospital houses some of the most dangerous men on the planet. Has denied claims patients are running amok with prostitutes and harassing victims

‘Entry into Thomas Embling Hospital is restricted, and all visitors must be approved prior to entry. The professional services of sex workers are not permitted,’ the hospital said via a statement. 

But the well placed source told Daily Mail Australia patients were known to invite sex workers into a makeshift ‘visitor room’ for illicit sex romps within the grounds of Thomas Embling’s Fairfield facility. 

And the source claimed Thomas Embling management had even considered tendering for a ‘conjugale room’. 

‘They scrapped that when they worked out it may have attracted publicity,’ the whistleblower said. 

It was further alleged patients were using the National Disability Insurance Scheme to pay for sex workers. 

They were allegations also denied by Forensicare: ‘Forensicare staff employ the highest ethical and professional standards of conduct, service delivery and care towards consumers and colleagues. We refute any allegations of misconduct by staff towards patients,’ it stated.

John Herron (pictured) will receive no justice for the murder of his precious daughter Courtney (front) 

The cold blooded murder of Courtney Herron saw an outpouring of grief from shocked members of the community. Her killer convinced doctors he was crazy 

Daily Mail Australia can reveal the Forensic Leave Panel – an independent tribunal made up of a judge, the hospital’s chief psychiatrist and another independent  psychiatrist – routinely allows criminally insane patients back out into the community. 

In 2020 – the last statistics publically available – the panel received 197 ‘off-ground’ applications from patients, granting a whopping 97 per cent of them. 

Leave is granted to known killers for a range of activities, both before and after dark, with patients permitted to take leave after 9pm three times a week. 

John Herron – the father of Courtney Herron – told Daily Mail Australia that Thomas Embling and Daniel Andrews’ government simply had no regard for the protection of victims or women in general.   

‘Even more alarming, these killers and psychopaths eased into society rapidly, more rapidly than any known treatment for psychosis or schizophrenia, meaning they must not have been suffering these conditions in the first place – or Thomas Embling has discovered a miraculous cure,’ he said. 

Peko Lakovski killed his wife, then two Thomas Embling patients. Last year he was allowed back into the community on day release

Henry Hammond is believed to be playing the system like a fiddle. He is known to go from feral to suave and is a hit with the ladies when not bashing them to death 

Daily Mail Australia revealed this week triple killer Peko Lakovski was allowed out of Thomas Embling despite murdering two fellow patients after a fishing trip on day release.

Lakovski had been placed in Thomas Embling in 2002 after he butchered his wife and seriously injuring his father-in-law. 

In 2009, he struck again, killing fellow patients Paul Notas, 36, and Raymond Splatt, 54 with a carving knife.

It was later revealed Lakovski had been on a pre-release program, with unescorted leave 738 times. 

Despite being found mentally unfit again to face justice, and handed another 25 year supervision order, Lakovski was allowed back out onto the streets on secret supervised visits. 

Daily Mail Australia is aware of at least one savage killer found not guilty of murder by way of mental impairment a little over 12 months ago already allowed back into the community on supervised day release.

Over the years, a who’s who of Victoria’s most violent men have been allowed back into the community from Victorian psychiatric facilities either on supervised day trips, unsupervised trips or released altogether after committing some of the state’s most horrific murders. 

Known villains include a man who ate portions of his victim, a paedophile witch and notorious killer Sean Christian Price. 

In 2014, former Supreme Court Justice Philip Cummins lashed out at media organisations in a long-winded rant for labelling patients allowed to walk free in the community as ‘crazed killers’. 

Celeste Manno (pictured) was allegedly murdered in her own bed by Luay Nader Sako, who is in the process of running a mental impairment defence. 

Justice Cummins, who died in 2019 aged 79, defended the rights of psychopathic killers. 

‘If a person is found not guilty because of mental impairment, there is a perception among some sections of the community that they are “free to walk the streets” and have “got away with it”. This is not the case,’ he wrote then.

‘They need treatment for their mental impairment, which may take many years. In some cases, they may never be released from supervision.’

Statistics contained in the latest Forensic Leave Panel annual report show patients spend on average about eight years in Victorian mental hospitals. 

While the report stated the longest period a person had spent is custody was 31 years in 2020, it does not report what the shortest length of time any person had remained there. 

Everyone’s a winner when you request leave from the Forensic Leave Panel – well, practically everyone

Statistics contained in the latest Forensic Leave Panel annual report show patients spend on average about eight years in Victorian mental hospitals.

Thomas Embling psychiatrists make no secret to Victorian courts that they believe releasing killers back into the community is in the best interests of their rehabilitation. 

It is a fact well known among Victoria’s long list of accused killers. 

At present, multiple alleged killers of women are attempting to convince the Supreme Court of Victoria they are unfit to go to trial by way of mental impairment. 

They include Luay Nader Sako – the man accused of murdering Celeste Manno – and Prabhal Sharma, who police say butchered his wife and child. 

When Bourke Street killer James Gargasoulas faced a fitness to stand trial jury over his murderous 2017 rampage that killed six, the court heard he believed he would have access to women and be granted early release once inside Thomas Embling. 

James Gargasoulas failed in a bid to escape justice over the murder of six people, including a baby, with a bogus mental impairment claim 

Psychologist Michael Daffern told the court how Gargasoulas had ‘told me that he thought he might be able to access the internet, there might be access to a mobile telephone’.

‘He was also interested there would be females at Thomas Embling Hospital as well.’

Forensicare consultant psychiatrist Andrew Carroll – who has deemed numerous killers mentally unfit for trial – told the court Gargasoulas had an ‘unrealistic belief’ he would be released from custody after spending five years at Thomas Embling. 

In reality, the mass killer was just three years off.