TRIPLE murderer Berwyn Rees has walked free from prison after nearly 40 years behind bars.
The State Parole Authority granted parole on August 9 to the 70-year-old, who killed three men in the 1970s and 1980s including a serving police officer.
Rees left Silverwater jail on Friday morning but will be subject to strict conditions, including electronic monitoring and a pre-approved schedule of movements.
He is also not allowed to posses or use a firearm or prohibited weapon, cannot contact, communicate with or even watch his victims' families, and has been barred from several areas in Sydney, the Central Coast, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.
The Newcastle Herald reported earlier this month that the Police Association of NSW, the daughter of one of Rees' victims and NSW Corrections Minister Anthony Roberts slammed the decision to grant him parole.
Rees pleaded guilty to the murder of Sergeant Keith Haydon as well as those of Raymond James and Christopher Greenfield.
During a 1977 Bondi gun robbery, he murdered Mr James and Mr Greenfield by shooting them at close range.
Later, it was target practice in Hunter bushland with guns taken in that hold-up that ultimately drew Sergeant Haydon to investigate reports of shots fired in November 1980.
Rees, who was on the run, shot and killed Sergeant Haydon before subsequently firing on another officer, Constable Alex Pietruszka.
Constable Pietruszka survived his injuries.
The release follows a decision to give Rees parole in February this year.
That verdict went to the state's highest court amid condemnation from the police union and then NSW Corrections Minister David Elliott, who sought legal advice to appeal.
NSW Supreme Court Justice Richard Button in May quashed that parole approval for the then 69-year-old.
Justice Button said in that decision that the parole authority had considered the physical threat to the victims' families but its decision should "also encompass the psychological or emotional effects".
Rees was initially sentenced to three life sentences, which in 1993 were redetermined. For the Sydney murders he was set a minimum term of 18 years and for Sergeant Haydon's murder he was sentenced to a minimum of 27 years.
That longer sentence ended in 2007, when he became eligible for parole, but the additional term on each of the three sentences was life.
A summary of Rees' most recent and successful application for parole noted that the authority cannot grant parole "unless it is satisfied that it [is] in the interests of the safety of the community to do so".
It notes that Rees became eligible for parole in 2007 and that expert reports contended that his risk of recidivism was lower than ever partly due to "the deteriorating state of health of the offender, then 69 years of age; to his gout, vision problems, obesity, kidney problems and rheumatism of knees and hips".
The summary notes Rees lived a "purposeless and frustrating life" before committing his crimes.
"During his early years in custody, he realised that he needed to change and engage in worthwhile activities but it took him until about 1985 to will himself to do so," it states.
