Malcolm George Baker

Malcolm George Baker (13 August 1947 – 23 June 2024) was an Australian spree killer from Terrigal, New South Wales, who died while serving six sentences of life imprisonment without parole for the shooting massacre of seven people, including an unborn child, in Terrigal, Bateau Bay and Wyong on the evening of 27 October 1992, an event known as the Central Coast massacre.

Life Baker was born on 13 August 1947 and resided with his parents and two sisters in the Penrith area during his childhood. He stated to authorities that he was exposed to significant domestic violence from both of his parents. Baker left school at the age of 15 and was at some point admitted to a psychiatry unit due to an overdose of sleeping tablets. He moved out of the family home when he was 17 years of age and relocated to the Central Coast. Baker was the father of nine children to six different women.

He worked as a mechanic and a panel beater. At some point prior to his imprisonment, Baker sustained an injury to his back, thereafter he developed a dependence on benzodiazepines. His body was discovered in the back yard of the home he shared with his ex girlfriend and her infant child.

Baker then went to the home of Ross Smith, 35, and Leslie Read, 25, in Wyong, 15 kilometres north of Bateau Bay. Arriving there shortly before 10 p.m., he shot and critically injured Read, then finding Smith in the bathtub shot and killed him instantly. Read died two hours later in hospital. Smith and Baker had had a confrontation about two years prior, over a business deal gone sour.

At 11.00 p.m., Baker walked into Toukley police station, surrendered, and handed over a sawn-off Remington 12-gauge double-barrelled shotgun. He was charged with six counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Sentencing In the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Baker pleaded guilty to six charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder. On 6 August 1993 at Newcastle Court House, Baker was sentenced by Justice Peter Newman to six terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and one term of twelve years for attempted murder.

+ # Victim Age Relationship Charge Sentence 1 Kerry Anne Gannan 23 Ex-partner Murder Life imprisonment without parole 2 Lisa May Gannan 18 Sister of Kerry Gannan Murder Life imprisonment without parole 3 Christopher Gall 22 Friend of Gannan sisters Attempted murder 12 years imprisonment 4 Thomas Benjamin Gannan 43 Ex-partner's father Murder Life imprisonment without parole 5 David Malcolm Baker 27 Son of Baker Murder Life imprisonment without parole 6 Ross Warren Smith 36 Former business associate Murder Life imprisonment without parole 7 Leslie Joyce Read 26 Partner of Ross Smith Murder Life imprisonment without parole

Incarceration and death Baker was one of the first six inmates of Goulburn Gaol's High Risk Management Unit upon its creation in 2001. Baker was designated as an Extreme High Security inmate from 23 April 1997 until 3 June 2013, and a High-Risk inmate from 3 June 2013 until 25 August 2016. He spent a significant period of time in segregated custody between 31 July 1996 and 18 August 2012.