‘Parole Board refuses to meet me’

Alicia’s attacker is entitled to meet with Tasmania’s Parole Board in person but Alicia is not, and the law prevents her from being identified, says Nina Funnell

THE victim of one of Tasmania’s most depraved “psychopathic” rapists has formally joined the #LetHerSpeak campaign to reform the state’s sexual assault victim gag laws, and will take her fight to be named to the Supreme Court of Tasmania.

Alicia*, now aged 51, was abducted and gang-raped in 1986 by Jamie John Curtis and his 16-year-old accomplice.

She was then tortured with a chainsaw and locked in the boot of a car while Curtis and his accomplice stabbed to death Alicia’s 22-year-old fiance, Dean Allan Allie, just metres away.

On Friday, Curtis will be considered for parole, having served 32 years in prison for the gang rape and murder. Alicia wants to speak out using her real name to warn the public of the danger Curtis poses to the community. But Tasmania’s archaic victim gag laws - Section 194K of the Evidence Act - prohibits her from doing so.

“The killer already knows my real name. The gag law doesn’t protect me one bit,” says Alicia. “It just works to silence me.” Alicia says she wants to tell her story so “the Parole Board understand who it is they are considering letting loose on the public again”.

In April last year, Curtis was released on parole for the first time, despite medical advice that he still displayed a “high number of psychopathic traits” which “cannot be cured”.

In October he was re-arrested after allegedly assaulting another woman who he had met online through one of a number of dating websites he signed up to in the weeks following his release. He has been held in prison ever since.

“He should never have been allowed out of jail in the first place,” says Alicia.

“I considered moving when I heard he would be released. I took leave from work for almost the entirety of his parole. “His freedom ended my freedom.” After she was informed Curtis was applying for re-release, Alicia wrote to the Parole Board on May 9 urging its members to meet her. Her request was denied on May 17 and Alicia was invited to write a letter instead.

“That’s not good enough. The Parole Board needs to look me in the eye and listen to me.

“Jamie Curtis is a monster. I know this better than anyone else alive.

“If the Parole Board refuses to meet with the victims, and the law says I can’t use my own name, what am I supposed to do to get heard?”

Nina Funnell is a Walkley awardwinning journalist and the creator of the #LetHerSpeak campaign in partnership with End Rape On Campus Australia and Marque Lawyers

The killer already knows my real name. The gag law doesn’t protect me one bit. It just works to silence me

THIS Friday Tasmania’s Parole Board will meet to discuss the release of one of Tasmania’s most notorious and depraved “psychopathic” killers.

In 1986, Jamie John Curtis led a vicious rampage across Hobart where he abducted three people, murdering one and gang-raping another, who he also tortured with a chainsaw — telling her that he would give her a two-minute headstart to run into the woods before he would come hunting her.

At the time of Curtis’s capture in 1986, there were warrants out for his arrest in South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania. He had also served jail time in Queensland.

Clearly he is a career criminal.

Yet in April last year, the Tasmanian Parole Board released the sadistic killer back into the community despite expert medical advice that he still displays a “high number of psychopathic traits” which “cannot be cured”. Within months of his release he was rearrested for allegedly assaulting another woman, who he met through an online dating account he set up.

Of course it was not the first time Curtis had been free from jail.

Eight months after his initial capture in 1986, a statewide manhunt was triggered after Curtis cunningly escaped Risdon Prison in a laundry van. He was carrying a table knife sharpened to a point at the time.

Days later, the deadly fugitive was found lurking on a neighbouring country property to where his gangrape victim was being kept under police guard.

Now aged 51, that woman wants the opportunity to address the Parole Board in person to explain “who it is they are considering letting loose on the public, again.”

She wants to tell them how his actions have impacted her throughout her entire life.

“Jamie Curtis is a monster. I know this better than anyone else alive,” she says.

“He should never have been allowed out of jail last year”

“How many more chances does he get? How many more lives need to be ruined?”

But in May this year the Parole Board denied her request to meet — telling her to write to it instead. This has left her feeling that she has no other option than to take her story to the media.

But in another cruel twist, Tasmania’s archaic sexual assault victim gag-laws mean the woman cannot speak under her real name as she wishes. If she does she could potentially be prosecuted.

“If the Parole Board refuse to meet with the victims, and the law says I can’t use my own name, what am I supposed to do to get heard?” she says.

“The killer already knows my name. This gag-law law doesn’t protect me one bit. It just works to silence me.”

It’s a good point. In response the woman has joined the #LetHerSpeak campaign which is now fundraising for the legal fees needed to take her fight to be named to the Supreme Court.

But this story doesn’t end there. Because in a further irony, shortly after the gang rape and murder occurred (and before Tasmania’s victim gag laws were implemented in their current form), Alicia* did speak out to the media under her real name.

In other words Alicia has already borne all the risk and stigma of speaking out. She has already shown courage under fire in being named as a rape victim.

Only now, her right to free speech and self-expression is being cruelly curtained.

No doubt when the Parole Board meets this Friday its decision will be made entirely independently of any media and political influence — as is entirely appropriate, and the Parole Board’s reputation for independence is rightly fiercely guarded.

But there is a risk that its decision could also be based on incomplete or unbalanced information since Curtis is entitled to meet with them face to face, while the victims cannot.

But Alicia has a message for the Parole Board, and she wants the public to hear it too.

She says: “I was a victim to a crime that was so savage and demented that I have suffered extreme trauma for the last 12,200 days.

“I have suffered trauma to the most excruciating degree and have been taken to the edge of total despair.

“Yet I never stopped determinedly taking one step after the next towards healing. But then last year the Parole Board released the devil back into my community. And his freedom ended my freedom.

“Until then, I had been functioning to a reasonable degree, despite the challenges. And I could do this because I always knew Curtis was securely behind bars.

“But as soon as Curtis was paroled last year I went into complete emotional and psychological meltdown. I was so overwhelmed I took leave from work for almost the entirety of his parole.

“I was engulfed by fear the entire time, just waiting for him to reoffend or breach parole. “And then he did.” “Please listen to me when I beg of you, keep him away from the community. I deserve to live in peace.

“The community deserves to be safe.” Donations can be made to help cover the legal fees of Alicia* at https://au.gofundme.com/f/ wq34q-let-her-speak