An Illawarra man who killed his wife and three daughters almost 30 years ago is set to be released from prison today.
Ljube Velevski murdered his wife Snezana, six-year-old daughter Zaklina and twin baby daughters Daniela and Dijana inside their family home in 1994.
Police officers found their bodies with their throats cut, stacked in a pile inside the house in the Wollongong suburb of Berkeley.
Velevski will leave prison today having served the maximum term of 25 years.
NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman said the 57-year-old had undergone a high-risk offender assessment and the state had no avenue to keep him behind bars.
"The offender will have served 25 years in jail, being the full term of his sentence, and as a result, will be legally entitled to full liberty," Mr Speakman said.
He said having considered assessments and legal advice, he concluded there were no prospects of success for an application for an extended supervision order or a continuing detention order.
'Worst imaginable' crime
Mr Speakman said his thoughts were with the family of the victims of the crime.
"The crime for which Ljube Velevski was convicted is the worst imaginable," Mr Speakman said.
Velevski became eligible for parole in May 2016 but declined to make an application on six occasions.
NSW State Parole Authority officially declined his parole and in a report claimed he had "not engaged in any programs to address his violent offending".
Conviction upheld
Police were called to a home at Castle Court in Berkeley on June 20, 1994, where they were met by six people including Velevski and his father.
Velevski told officers he had not seen his wife and children since the previous night and that his wife had taken the children into a bedroom and locked the door.
Police managed to open the lock and discovered the bodies piled between the bed and a cot.
Velevski denied any involvement in their deaths and told police he had been sleeping in his daughter Zaklina's room since 1pm the previous day until 6am that day, a period of 17 hours.
Velevski was convicted after an eight-week trial in 1997 of four counts of murder and sentenced to a prison term of 25 years with a non-parole period of 19 years.
During the trial prosecutors argued Velevski killed his family after an argument in which his wife threatened to leave him.
One of the central issues at the trial was whether the Crown had excluded the possibility that Ms Velevski had murdered her children before killing herself.
The crime scene was examined by six forensic pathologists.
Three found it was probable Velevski carried out the murder, while two experts claimed the evidence pointed to murder suicide.
An application to overturn the conviction was submitted to the NSW Supreme Court in 1999.
The appeal was dismissed by majority decision with Justice David Kirby dissenting.
"The conviction should be quashed … the jury ought to have had a reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the accused," he said.
"There is, in my belief, a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted."
However, in upholding the conviction, Justice James said the conflicting expert evidence did not mean a verdict of guilty would be "unsafe".
"The verdicts of guilty should not be set aside on the grounds that they are unreasonable or cannot be supported having regard to the evidence or that there has been a miscarriage of justice," he said.
The court heard evidence that Snezana's family had a history of psychiatric problems and that she was suffering from postnatal depression.
However her obstetrician gave evidence that Snezana was "exactly the opposite" of depressed.
"The evidence … that Snezana … had psychiatric problems was very thin," Justice James said.
The matter was subsequently taken to the High Court where the appeal was also dismissed.
