Victoria's worst serial killer who uses tarot cards "as a contemplative doorway" and "spiritual tool" in prison has won a Supreme Court bid to have four cards featuring bare-breasted women returned to him.
Paul Steven Haigh, 60, was jailed for life in Barwon Prison over the murders of six people in the late 1970s. He murdered a seventh person in 1991.
The practising pagan launched legal action against the prison for removing four cards from his Deviant Moon tarot deck in 2017, featuring "abstract, mystical illustration of an other-worldly female character displaying breasts", which the prison banned as "pornographic" or "objectionable".
In his judgment on Friday, Justice Timothy Ginnane said while a dispute about tarot cards hardly seemed worthy of the Supreme Court, it was an issue about prisoner rights.
"The parliament has given prisoners, even those convicted of the most terrible crimes, rights they can seek to exercise while in prison, one of which is the right to practise their religion," he said.
Justice Ginnane said the prison allowed for inmates to exercise their religions including Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity - and that Paganism was also included.
In late 2016, Haigh applied to the jail for three packs of tarot cards, which he argued was important in the practise of his religion.
Prison governor Brett Ryan refused the request in January 2017, stating Haigh's use of tarot cards could undermine the prison's security, potentially by causing unrest or manipulating vulnerable prisoners.
But Haigh complained to the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, and his request was allowed.
The prisons operations manager complained about four of the cards featuring female characters with bare breasts.
Haigh argued without the cards, the tarot deck couldn't be used, and their removal was "an unlawful limitation on his right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief".
In return, Mr Ryan argued Haigh could use a different tarot pack.
But Justice Ginnane said it was not the role of the "judicial function" to stipulate how people practise religion.
"I consider that courts and administrators should be extremely wary about determining what is required for a person to practise their religious beliefs," he said.
The judge said that, on the assumed belief Paganism is a religion, the withholding of the four tarot cards which Haigh wished to use, "does engage his right of religious freedom and belief."
Australian Associated Press
