Notorious pedophile abandons release bid

A notorious Adelaide pedophile who had many "gravely concerning" items in his cell, including missing children media articles has been allowed to withdraw his release application.

Other items included camera and surveillance equipment information, a list of names of women and children, and photos of children clipped from magazines and newspapers.

Repeat sex offender Mark Trevor Marshall was jailed indefinitely in 2009 after being deemed to be unwilling or unable to control his sexual instincts.

In 2011, a South Australian Supreme Court judge ordered that the now 44-year-old be released on licence.

Since then, another judge has presided over numerous hearings and adjournments involving Parole Board objections, psychiatric reports and argument over proposed licence conditions.

But last month Marshall's lawyer sought to withdraw the application, while the Solicitor-General urged the judge to dismiss it saying otherwise he could re-apply immediately which would be an abuse of process.

Justice Trish Kelly on Friday allowed Marshall to withdraw the application, saying it was not always "foredoomed to failure", only becoming so after the "gravely concerning" items were found in March.

"They included a large number of enemas as well as a section of a syringe attached to a razor with masking tape, a large quantity of photos of children clipped from magazine and newspapers, articles relating to missing children cases, information pertaining to the sale of camera and surveillance equipment, a list of names of women and children, and addresses and maps of various areas of Adelaide," she said.

A psychiatrist said it was particularly concerning that Marshall accessed the White Pages to obtain home addresses and phone numbers of people referred to in the media articles.

At best, this indicated a "a profound lack of insight" on the part of Marshall.

"At worst, it indicates a premeditated plan to contact those people in the articles or have his friend contact them `to ask what it is all about'," the psychiatrist said.

The judge said Marshall plainly had a long period of rehabilitation ahead of him before he was likely to be supported again by his treating medical professionals to make a fresh application.