Notorious rapist and child killer Lloyd Clark Fletcher wants a Queensland court to lift his indefinite jail sentence in a bid for freedom, on the grounds he is terminally ill.
The 64-year-old murderer has cancer, prison sources have told ABC News.
Fletcher was the first in Queensland to be jailed indefinitely and one of the first Australian murderers to be convicted using DNA.
News of his bid prompted calls from one of his many victims and the Queensland Homicide Victims Support Group (QHVSG) to keep the predator jailed.
Fletcher has been behind bars for the past 24 years, concurrently serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of 15-year-old Janet Phillips and an indefinite sentence for the abduction and attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl.
'Evil, sadistic monster'
The serial sex offender committed his first sexual attack on females at the age of 14.
As an adult in between jail stints, he committed violent crimes against females from 1977 to 1997 in Queensland and Victoria.
His then-13-year-old Victorian victim, Donna Rupp, who Fletcher abducted at knifepoint as she rode home from a school sports day in 1989, said he would offend again if freed.
Ms Rupp, who gave ABC News permission to use her name and image, said Fletcher "is an evil, sadistic monster, who will never be rehabilitated".
"We need to ensure we protect other young girls from falling victim to him.
Fletcher's risk to the community has previously been psychiatrically assessed as "severe to potentially fatal", according to court records.
If his court bid is successful, his indefinite sentence would be lifted and converted to a life sentence, making him eligible to apply for parole.
Fletcher's case could then become one of the first to test Queensland's new tough parole laws, which can block specific inmates — those sentenced to life for multiple murders or for murdering a child — from being considered for parole for up to 10 years.
However, in five previous reviews of his indefinite sentence, the court ruled Fletcher remain behind bars.
Application lodged last December
Fletcher lodged an application to Brisbane's Supreme Court last December — days after the new parole laws came into effect.
On January 27, Supreme Court Justice Bowskill ordered all parties be provided with a medical report of Fletcher's condition, treatment and prognosis by a doctor from Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital's Palliative Care Team by February 10.
Fletcher is serving his time in the low-security residential section of the state's only protection jail — where prisoners can be protected from fellow inmates — the Wolston Correctional Centre in Brisbane's western outskirts.
Prison sources told ABC News that Fletcher was dying from cancer but continued to work in one of the jail's workshops.
They said Fletcher stopped his cancer treatment some months ago.
'Never set foot in the community again'
QHVSG chief executive officer Brett Thompson said someone like Fletcher should never be free in the community.
"People who lose someone to homicide … believe these persons should never be free, but we accept parole is part of our legal system," Mr Thompson said.
Predatory past
In a 2011 review of his indefinite sentence, Fletcher told the court hearing he would fight to stay in jail "forever" and never seek parole.
The court heard some details of Fletcher's adult offences which began in 1977, when Fletcher, then 19, raped and attempted to murder a 23-year-old woman at Innisfail in Far North Queensland.
After the attack, he put the unconscious woman into a crocodile-infested river but she woke when her body hit the water.
He attacked her on a bridge, in a similar way to a woman he sexually assaulted when he was 14.
Fletcher was jailed for 15 years for that crime, serving nine years before being released on parole.
Murder of Janet Phillips
Within five months of being released, he raped and murdered Ms Phillips.
The year 10 student had been walking home alone from a friend's 21st birthday party at a local hall in Wynnum on Brisbane's bayside when Fletcher struck.
Ms Phillips's murder remained unsolved for 10 years.
Police interviewed Fletcher at the time but he denied committing the crime and DNA testing was not yet available.
He fled and in 1989, attempted to abduct then-13-year-old Ms Rupp at knifepoint at Bright in Victoria.
She was saved by some labourers who heard her screams and cornered Fletcher, who was arrested by police at the scene.
The Victorian judge noted the attack at Bright was similar to the one Fletcher committed at Innisfail.
Fletcher served four years of a five-year sentence for the attack.
Attack at Brisbane train station
By 1997, the predator returned to Queensland and brutally attacked a 16-year-old girl waiting for the last train at Wynnum Railway Station in Brisbane.
He forced her into his car at knifepoint, tied her up with rope, choked her unconscious and attempted to rape her.
She was able to escape when four teenagers intervened.
The attack ended his violence against females in the community.
Police found blood left on the rope Fletcher used to bound his victim and tests matched his DNA in semen found on Ms Phillips body a decade earlier.
'Rehearsed sadistic fantasy'
Fletcher was jailed for Ms Phillips's murder in 1998 and months later, indefinitely jailed for attacking the 16-year-old girl at Wynnum Railway Station.
Treating psychiatrist Dr Joel Smith found that the fact Fletcher returned to Wynnum for the 1997 attack — not far from where he murdered Ms Phillips — suggesting it was a "rehearsed sadistic fantasy".
When Fletcher was indefinitely sentenced in 1998, the judge described him as a "chilling serial offender" who posed a "serious danger to the community".
"You would, were I to impose life imprisonment, remain a risk of serious physical harm to members of the community, especially vulnerable young women in isolated situations who seem to have been regular targets of your lustful depredations," the judge said.
"There is a need to protect such people from that risk."
Fletcher's matter will return before the Supreme Court in Brisbane on March 2.
