Bio

Julian Knight was born on 4 March 1968. He was the oldest of three children. When he was ten days old he was adopted by a family with strong army ties.

As a child he moved often. He lived in Melbourne and Puckapunyal. He also lived abroad in Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore. In early 1975 his family settled in Laverton, Victoria. He went to Laverton Primary School until the end of 1978.

His parents divorced in 1980 when he was 12. After that he attended Westbourne Grammar School and Fitzroy High School. He later won entry to Melbourne High School, a selective secondary school.

A note in the 1985 Melbourne High School yearbook said he was known as "Swapo" and called him the "cadet unit looney and chief political agitator." While at Westbourne he showed a strong interest in guns and the military. He also had an interest in Nazi Germany and World War II.

At age 14 he joined the Australian Army Cadets. He served in the Norwood Secondary College Cadet Unit and the Melbourne HSCU. At 17, while still in high school, he enlisted in the Army Reserve and served as a trooper in the 4th/19th Prince of Wales's Light Horse Regiment, an armoured reconnaissance unit.

In 1986 he attended La Trobe University to study French, German history, and politics. He entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon on 13 January 1987 at the age of 18. He did well in weapons exercises but performed poorly in some studies and was advised to leave the army in July 1987 after an incident.

Murder Story

Julian Knight (born 4 March 1968) is serving seven concurrent life sentences with a non‑parole period of 27 years. The judge who sentenced him, Justice George Hampel, said there were "a number of significant mitigatory factors" and that fixing a minimum term was appropriate because of his age and prospects of rehabilitation. The Crown prosecutor did not contest a minimum term.

Knight pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder. During the trial it was asserted that he had a personality disorder with hysterical features.

He is held in the protection section of the maximum security Port Phillip Prison in Truganina near Melbourne. He would have been eligible for parole in 2014. Before that date, the Victorian Parliament passed the Corrections Amendment (Parole) Act 2014 to prevent his release unless he is dying or so incapacitated that he no longer poses a danger. Knight challenged the validity of that legislation many times and lost his final appeal to the High Court in August 2017.

Knight has initiated many legal challenges while imprisoned. In 1992 he sought a review after being refused AUSTUDY. In 2001 he sought an injunction about documents prepared for an inquest; the documents were returned and the application was dismissed. In 2002 he took several matters to VCAT and the Supreme Court about prison mail, items removed from his cell, and access to prison documents.

Prison staff seized a number of items from his cell, including blades, sharpened knives, white supremacist literature, war literature, medication bottles, remote controls, an extension lead, a can opener, bale hooks, permanent markers, computer disks with information on prison security and staff, pornographic material, sandpaper, masking tape, prison manuals, staff pictures, betting information, and prison and staff rosters. Many of his applications about those seizures were dismissed, though some seized items were returned.

In 2003 a court estimated that Knight's many legal challenges had cost the Victorian government significant sums. On 19 October 2004 he was declared a vexatious litigant and barred from launching further legal action in Victoria's courts for ten years. He remained able to make Freedom of Information requests. He continued to pursue other legal matters, including a 2009 action against the Victorian Attorney‑General to remove his vexatious litigant status.

Knight has sought access to rehabilitation programs and permission to contact victims. In 2007 he told the Supreme Court he wanted access to programs to improve his chance of parole and sought to write a letter of apology to a victim. Prison authorities intercepted a letter he tried to send, and he faced prison charges and short periods in solitary confinement over some correspondence.

On the 20th anniversary of the events for which he was convicted, Justice George Hampel said he stood by the sentence he had given. Knight has made other submissions and legal claims over the years, including a 94‑page submission to the Defence Abuse Response Task Force in 2013 and court proceedings in 2014 about his treatment while at Duntroon.