NSW triple murderer Matthew De Gruchy may move to Tasmania if his parole application is successful.
A state government spokesman said on Saturday De Gruchy’s possible move was “very concerning”.
“The government is considering what options it has available and is seeking more information from the NSW government,” he said.
Fairfax Media understands De Gruchy will apply to live with his stepbrother and his father Wayne in Tasmania if he is released.
He has been working at an abattoir in country NSW as he prepares for his permanent exit from prison.
Twenty-one years after he slayed three of his four family members at their Illawara home, he has reinvented himself as a model inmate of Junee Correctional Centre.
With his parole hearing in sight, he has earned the right, since June, to leave prison for approved reasons including work and education.
De Gruchy was 18 when he bludgeoned to death his mother Jennifer, who was 41 at the time, sister Sarah, who was 13, and brother Adrian, who was 15, in the family’s Albion Park Rail home on March 12, 1996.
He was sentenced to a maximum 28 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 21 years.
His earliest possible release date is June 21, with his full term expiring in June, 2024.
Now aged 38, the date and terms of De Gruchy’s release were to be decided at a private parole hearing on Thursday. However the case was stood over to May 25.
His father Wayne De Gruchy was in Sydney the night his son went on the deadly rampage that left Jennifer De Gruchy, in particular, with grotesque and unsurvivable head injuries.
Jennifer, Sarah and Adrian died in different rooms of the house. They were so bloodied and disfigured, the sight caused one police officer to take sick leave, never to return to work.
The murder weapon was never found, but was believed to have been a car jack.
De Gruchy was arrested three months later, after police found their smoking gun – a checklist in his hand, detailing how to murder his family.
De Gruchy has earned himself positive reviews from his employer at Junee Abattoir, where he works in the chill room under terms set by the Serious Offenders Review Council.
A Corrective Services NSW spokeswoman said De Gruchy did not have access to knives in his role.
“All work locations are risk assessed to ensure they … do not present any security concerns,” she said.
“This inmate will be released back into the community at some point. Day works release is an important step to ensure he will assimilate into the community successfully.”
