Mother furious over excursion for killer

THE mother of a murder victim has lashed out at the Department of Justice over its plan to let a brutal double murderer go to the Hobart waterfront for “educational and rehabilitation” purposes.

Heidi el Ozone’s son, Joshua Newman, was viciously stabbed along with Angela Hallam in 2012 by Marco Daniel Rusterholz.

Rusterholz was convicted in 2015 and sentenced to 45 years jail.

Ms el Ozone was informed by the Justice Department that Rusterholz was going to have three to four hours on the Hobart waterfront on Monday, June 25. The leave was cancelled after Ms el Ozone contacted Attorney-General Elise Archer.

Ms el Ozone said Rusterholz was a “f...ing monster” who had never shown remorse.

“You can’t rehabilitate that and for the department to think there is any rehabili- tation for him is ludicrous,” she said.

“We are talking about a man who did horrific things and he still can’t admit that he did it and is about to lodge an appeal with the High Court.

“And he thinks he is going to have a little excursion? Hell no. Where is my son’s appeal, where is Josh’s excursion?

“There’s no way over my dead body that he is going wandering down the waterfront like a tourist.”

Ms el Ozone said she understood rehabilitation for petty criminals.

“But that kind of evil, there is not rehabilitation or education for that type of evil,” she said.

Rusterholz, 53, was given a 25-year non-parole period.

“It is way too soon for him to get rehabilitation, I have only just had Josh’s second funeral after getting body parts back,” Ms el Ozone said.

In the 2015 trial the court heard Rusterholz murdered Ms Hallam to impress a new girlfriend. He then intentionally killed Mr Newman in a brutal and callous fashion because Mr Newman had witnessed Ms Hallam’s vicious murder.

Justice Robert Pearce said he was satisfied the crime was at least in part to impress another woman because Rusterholz took some of Ms Hallam’s blonde hair to her as a trophy.

He said Mr Newman would have endured a terrifying death, suffering a number of serious defensive wounds on his arms as he fought for his life.

Justice Pearce found Rusterholz had used a heavy knife to inflict deep cuts to the necks of the victims.

Rusterholz showed no remorse after the killings, dousing the bodies with petrol and setting fire to them.

A Department of Justice spokesman said: “For privacy reasons, the Tasmania Prison Service does not comment on the circumstances of individual prisoners.”