SNOWTOWN MURDERS MONSTER SET FREE

After 25 years in jail, Mark Ray Haydon is due for release in May

Still regarded as Australia's most heinous serial killings, South...Australia's Snowtown killings; also known as the "bodies-in- the-barrels" murders has left a harrowing legacy of pain and trauma.

Now, 25 years on, one man involved, 65-year-old Mark Ray Haydon, could be freed from jail in a matter of months, with no restrictions or supervision.

"He has completed the sentence the court has imposed," says presiding member of the Parole Board Frances Nelson KC. "His head sentence expires in a few weeks, so of course he will be released."

Haydon was never found guilty of any of the 11 murders, which were given the infamous label due to the eight dismembered bodies found in barrels of acid in a disused bank vault in Snowtown, a small town 150 kilometres: north of Adelaide.

BRUTAL KILLINGS

John Justin Bunting, Robert Joe Wagner and James Spyridon Vlassakis were named as the murderers, while Haydon was convicted of helping cover up the deaths of seven victims.

Between 1992 and 1999, the group went on a vicious murder spree, with almost all of the victims closely related to them as partners, family or friends.

Initially, it was thought their motive was to receive the victims' Centrelink benefits, but it seemed Bunting was dealing out punishment to those he accused of being paedophiles, homosexuals or "weak".

Haydon's part began in August 1998, when, unbeknown to him, six people had already been murdered.

Bunting, who was dating. Haydon's wife's sister, asked Haydon to help scåre Troy Youde, 21. The gang claimed Troy had sexually abused Vlassakis, and at first Haydon joined in on the "scare". When it got violent, he fled to another room, but he then helped clean up and carry Troy's body to the back shed.