Territory killer’s bid for parole
A TERRITORY killer who has spent almost 30 years behind bars for the shocking murders of five people, including his wife and their two sons, in West Arnhem Land has applied for parole.
Dennis Rostron shot dead his wife Cecily, their sons Preston, 2, and Zarack, 1, and his wife’s father Dick Murrumurru and stepmother Dolly, as they lay defenceless on a mattress at Molgawo outstation on September 25, 1988.
Rostron, 53, has been in prison since an NT Supreme Court jury found him guilty of five counts of murder.
NT Parole Board secretary Tracy Luke said Rostron was eligible to seek parole in September 2015.
“His application has been deferred three times to allow for post-release planning with his parole officer, the prison through-care team, his lawyers and his family,” Ms Luke said.
She said public interest was the main concern when the parole board considered releasing a prisoner.
Rostron’s application will be canvassed at a meeting in June.
His lawyer, Suzan Cox QC, told a court he had been a “model prisoner”.
Rostron, who was sentenced in an era before the NT had parole and life meant life, was given an automatic minimum 25-year non-parole period when the government introduced legislation in 2003.
In January 2013, NT Su- preme Court Justice Judith Kelly extended this to 28 years at the request of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Justice Kelly said: “I am not prepared to make a finding he would not reoffend.
“I accept he has incentive not to reoffend but one would have thought he had an even stronger incentive before – natural love and affection for his children.”
Justice Kelly said the adult victims had treated Rostron “cruelly” before he killed them.
He had argued with his wife because she forgot to bring batteries from Jabiru and she told him their boys were not his.
Mr Murrumurru accused him of speaking to Dolly Murrumurru, which broke traditional law.
Rostron heard his wife agree with Dolly that she should leave him. They tried to banish him. He killed them all.
Justice Kelly heard Rostron, now an inmate at Holtze, had learnt to read and write, and discovered such a talent for art that the prison lecturer predicted he could make a living selling works internationally.