Attorney-General Tony Buti keeps mass murderer Douglas Crabbe behind bars after denying him parole

New Attorney-General Tony Buti has kept one of Australia’s most notorious mass murderers behind bars, denying him parole. Mr Buti has thwarted Douglas Crabbe’s attempts to be released from prison, despite the WA parole board formally recommending his release in April, subject to a parole order for a period of three years. Crabbe has been serving five life sentences at Acacia Prison for driving his 25-tonne truck into a crowded Uluru pub in 1983, killing five people and injuring 16 others. In 2023, on the recommendation of the Prisoner Review Board, former A-G John Quigley approved Crabbe to relocate to a minimum-security prison to participate in a resocialisation program readying him for parole. In April this year the Prisoner Review Board considered Crabbe’s case and recommended his release, subject to the three-year parole order. But Mr Buti, who has the final say on Crabbe’s release from jail, rejected the parole board’s recommendation. “Having considered the report, I have decided not to release Douglas Crabbe at this time,” Mr Buti said this week. “I have taken into account the seriousness of the offence, a crime where five people were murdered and a further 16 were injured — some seriously.” On October 7, 1985, in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory in Darwin, Crabbe was convicted of five counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with no minimum term set. The details of his crime are horrific. In the early hours of August 18, 1983, Crabbe had been drinking at the Inland Hotel at Yulara in the Northern Territory and after some time was refused service and ordered to leave the premises, which he did. He then returned to the Inland Hotel and drove his 25-tonne prime-mover truck into the wall of the bar. The five people who were killed were seated against the wall inside the bar. The victims’ ages ranged from 21 to 45 years old. In 2005, Crabbe transferred to Western Australia under the Prisoners (Interstate Transfer) Act 1983. Mr Buti said he had considered the views of the surviving victims and persons affected by Crabbe’s actions in making his decision to keep him behind bars. “A number of those have spoken publicly and written to me personally expressing their opposition to Mr Crabbe’s release, which was at the forefront of my decision,” he said. Bernadette Schiller, who survived Crabbe’s rampage, told The West Australian last year she was shattered by the prospect the murderer may be released on parole. “It works out to be eight years per murder, which is totally unacceptable to me,” she said. “He was sentenced in the Northern Territory to five life sentences, and I do not understand how in Western Australia they can possibly think that’s serving his term.”