Vampire killer Tracey Wigginton seeks release

Tony Keim
December 11, 2009 11:00pm

"LESBIAN vampire killer" Tracey Wigginton was in such frail health it was nigh on impossible for her to harm anyone if released on parole, a court heard.

Lawyers for Wigginton, who has been in jail for the past 20 years, yesterday told the Brisbane Supreme Court the convicted killer was suffering from a chronic and debilitating back condition and a knee injury and required crutches to remain mobile.

Barrister Josh Fenton, for Wigginton, said it was hard to believe his 44-year-old client would ever be physically capable of killing someone again with a knife.

Wigginton, who is serving a life sentence for the 1989 murder of council worker Edward Baldock, 47, has launched legal action against the Queensland Parole Board to overturn its decision to refuse to release her on parole.

She is also challenging a decision by Queensland's Department of Corrective Services that effectively blocks her from being transferred back to the low-security Numinbah Correctional Centre, 115km south of Brisbane.

Mr Fenton said Wigginton has been placed in a no-win "Catch 22" situation which required her to spend at least six months in a low-security facility such as Numinbah before she could be granted release on parole.

However, he said Wigginton's crippling ailments required treatment not available at the Numinbah facility.

"A woman who suffers from (these conditions) is highly unlikely to commit such a crime (as that on Baldock) again," Mr Fenton said.

Wigginton, who is classified as a low-security prisoner and has been in jail since January 1991, was one of four women who lured Baldock into a car at Kangaroo Point. He was driven to West End where Wigginton stabbed him 27 times and drank his blood.

Wigginton has been eligible for parole since 2002, but her latest application was denied in July this year.

She was moved from Numinbah prison farm back to Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre in 2006 after being accused of assaulting another prisoner.

Justice Glenn Martin has reserved his decision.

Outside court, Sisters Inside prisoner advocate and solicitor Debbie Kilroy said she believed Wigginton was fully rehabilitated.

Ms Kilroy had offered to allow the convicted killer to live with her if released.