Snowtown murder accomplice Mark Ray Haydon has been released into the community days before the end of his 25-year prison sentence for helping to cover up Australia’s worst serial murder crime.
The Department of Correctional Services said Haydon, 65, was transferred to an address in the community on Thursday.
An interim extended supervision order was made in the South Australian Supreme Court on Wednesday, which will take effect when Haydon’s parole expires next week.
He was in the Adelaide Pre-Release Center while serving his parole, which was granted in February, and was released into the community on day of release.
Haydon’s prison sentence expires on May 21, exactly 25 years after he was taken into custody with convicted murderers John Bunting and Robert Wagner, who are both serving life sentences without the possibility of parole.
65-year-old accomplice in the Snowtown murder Mark Ray Haydon has been released into the community
Haydon’s release comes days before the end of his 25-year prison sentence for helping to cover up the ‘bodies in the barrels’ murders (pictured at the time)
The state government is continuing its bid to declare Haydon a high-risk offender and is awaiting a report into his mental health.
However, the report will not be available until June or July, government lawyers have already told the court.
Frances Nelson, Chairman of the Parole Board the advertiser said on Friday that Haydon had already been released from the Pre-Release Center and moved there a secret location.
Ms Nelson told the ABC the new address had been vetted “very carefully” by SA Police, Community Corrections and the Parole Board.
“It is best that he settles into the community while he is still on parole as his main sentence expires early next week,” she said.
“The idea behind his release is to allow him to live in the community while still subject to parole.
“I confirm the location is in the community because from Monday or Tuesday next week it will be in the community anyway.”
Haydon helped convicted murderers John Bunting and Robert Wagner cover up the murders of twelve people in the 1990s (photo: the barrels of human remains stored by Haydon)
Haydon will have strict bail conditions to adhere to (photo, Haydon before his arrest)
The preliminary supervision order imposes conditions based on his parole, including living at an approved address, reporting weekly to a community corrections officer, abstaining from alcohol and illegal drugs, not contacting victims or their families, not communicating with the media or co-offenders, and carrying out the recommended treatment after a psychological assessment.
Haydon must also wear an electronic transmitter and adhere to a curfew from 9pm to 6am.
The serial killings came to light in May 1999 when police found eight dismembered bodies in acid-filled barrels in the vault of a disused bank in Snowtown, north of Adelaide.
Two more bodies were found buried in a backyard in the suburb of Salisbury North, while detectives later linked two more deaths to Bunting and Wagner.
Haydon was revealed to have helped his friends cover up their crimes by storing the bodies of murder victims in barrels in his shed and later renting the infamous Snowtown bank.