McCrossen suffers delay

Transfer to mental unit fails to go ahead

ONE of Tasmania’s longestserving prisoners is yet to be transferred to Tasmania’s secure mental-health unit — an integral step in his bid for freedom.

Jamie Gregory McCrossen, 45, has been incarcerated his entire adult life, having been declared a “dangerous criminal” not to be released.

McCrossen was jailed in 1990 as an 18-year-old for assault and wounding while holding up a Hobart antique shop with an old pistol.

A year later, he was declared a dangerous criminal after sending death threats to his victim.

In 1994, he bashed correctional officer Keith Kilmartin, whose wife Jan recently called for him never to be released.

Last year, McCrossen’s bid to overturn his criminal declaration was rejected by Supreme Court Justice Shan Tennent who was not satisfied he no longer posed a risk.

McCrossen has lodged fresh application for release.

The court has heard that McCrossen will be transferred a to the state’s only secure mental-health facility to participate in programs to aid his release if his application succeeds.

But yesterday Justice Helen Wood heard the expected transfer to the Wilfred Lopes Centre did not go ahead last month because the ward was “too unsettled”.

A forensic mental-health worker told the court that McCrossen was now first on the priority list for transfer.

Justice Wood adjourned the case until September 26, saying there was an “awareness” the transfer was “urgent.