Police admit releasing sex game killer Trent Jennings was a mistake


Police admit it was not the best decision to allow sex killer Trent Jennings out of a psychiatric hospital.





Killer on the loose

Trent Jennings had been on the run from a secure psychiatric hospital. Picture: NSW Police
Source: Supplied





NSW police have admitted the decision to allow sex killer Trent Jennings out of a psychiatric hospital on day release was a mistake.


Jennings, 26, was found sleeping in a black Mercedes-Benz on Bayshore Drive in Byron Bay about 6.45am (AEDT) today after a tip-off from a member of the public.

He is currently being interviewed at Byron Bay police station and is due to face Lismore Local Court.

Assistant police commissioner Mark Murdoch says the decision to release him on day release was made in in good faith, but hindsight now probably indicates that the decision wasn’t the best one.

He had been on the run from a secure psychiatric hospital in Morisset, south of Newcastle, where he was in custody after killing his gay lover Giuseppe Vitale during a drug-fuelled sex romp in 2003.

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Trent Jennings






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A warrant was issued for his arrest after police wanted to question him in relation to an assault in the Sydney suburb of Zetland.

At about 7pm (AEDT) on December 29, a 50-year-old Zetland man was allegedly assaulted and his Mercedes four-wheel-drive was stolen from his home.

The alleged thief was someone whom the man had met online, police said.

The NSW Supreme Court was told in 2005 that Jennings had stabbed Giuseppe Vitale in the neck with a kitchen knife after being tied up during a sexual liaison with the man, whom he had met through the internet.

He was found not guilty of murdering Giuseppe Vitale on grounds of mental illness in 2005 by the NSW Supreme Court.

The court was told Jennings suffered a psychotic illness that was precipitated or aggravated by illicit drug use.

He had taken three or four ecstasy tablets in the hour before meeting Mr Vitale, as well as an intravenous shot of amphetamines.

Jennings told a police psychiatrist that after he had tied up Mr Vitale as part of their foreplay he heard voices saying that Mr Vitale was going to rape him.

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