Sex change killer freed

Convicted killer Maddison Hall is being released on parole, despite being earlier jailed for life for the shooting murder of hitchhiker Lyn Saunders in December, 1987.

The sex change killer was known as Noel Crompton Hall when he shot Mr Saunders in the back near Gol Gol after picking him up while hitchhiking after his car had broken down on his way home to Adelaide to visit his family for Christmas.

When Hall realised Mr Saunders was not dead, he put his shortened shotgun in the victim’s mouth and pulled the trigger, blowing off the back of his head.

The same gun had earlier been thrust into the face of Hall’s wife Sharron at the Nowra home in which they lived and raised two children.

Sharron later said Hall was repeatedly violent during their time together.

“I honestly believe Noel Hall has no respect or care for anyone else but for his selfish, self-centred and self-gratifying personal desires and needs,” she wrote to the State Parole Authority in trying to keep Hall behind bars.

“Obviously, I know first-hand the violent, twisted, lying nature of Noel Hall,” she said, before detailing some of the problems she encountered during their time together.

“It has taken time, encouragement, family love, the love of a new partner and a child which has seen me rise above it all, but honestly, the scars remain.”

Hall was controversial during her time behind bars.

After being diagnosed with gender identity disorder Hall claimed she was a woman trapped in a man’s body and belonged in a female prison. The Serious Offenders Crime Management Committee recommended Hall be placed in a female prison.

But after Hall was charged with raping his cellmate within months of being placed in the women’s prison at Mulawa he was moved back to a man’s jail at Junee, where he reportedly offered sex in exchange for drugs.

But being placed in a male prison resulted in Hall successfully suing the Corrective Services Department for $25,000 for psychological trauma, which in 2003 was used to pay for a sex change operation.

In 2001 his life sentence was cut to 22 years with 16 and a half years to be served before being eligible for parole.

Parole has been available for several years, and in 2006 Hall was due to be released into supported accommodation in Surry Hills for people with HIV/AIDS, but public controversy about the plan delayed his release to an extent the placement was no longer available.

She is being released tomorrow with a job and accommodation arranged at a secret location.

However Hall will be under strict conditions including being under 24-hour surveillance through an electronic bracelet, according to the State Parole Authority.