Victoria's parole board has admitted it made a mistake when it failed to revoke Adrian Ernest Bayley's parole, but insists community safety is its paramount consideration.
Bayley was on parole when he murdered Jill Meagher in a Brunswick laneway in September last year.
Responding on Wednesday to a scathing report from former High Court justice Ian Callinan, the Adult Parole Board said that while protecting the community was its number one priority, human behaviour was unpredictable and risk could not be totally eliminated.
The board said it admitted to Ms Meagher's husband Tom that it made the wrong decision when it did not revoke Bayley's parole after he pleaded guilty to assaulting a man in Geelong.
It expressed its regret and apologised for the decision, which it said was made in good faith.
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"The board acknowledges a failure to identify the escalating risk that Mr Bayley posed to the community," the board said in its first detailed statement on the Bayley issue and the Callinan report.
"The board was not asked or advised to cancel Mr Bayley's parole but acknowledges now that it should have done so."
Bayley was both on parole and on bail, while he appealed his assault sentence, when he murdered Ms Meagher.
Mr Callinan said he found it was "not easy to understand" why the serial rapist wasn't jailed when he was convicted of the Geelong assault and the parole board had both cause and opportunity to cancel his parole.
Mr Meagher said on Tuesday the board admitted it was an "indefensible mistake".
"It is also confronting to know that this was so easily preventable," he said.
"What I don't understand is especially after the attack in Geelong how they didn't reinforce the curfew at least is baffling."
In his report Mr Callinan said the board's decisions were tilted in favour of offenders, not victims, and it did not give enough prominence to public safety.
But the board has insisted it always placed community safety at the forefront of its considerations when granting parole.
"Contrary to Mr Callinan's assertions, we have always acted with community safety as the paramount consideration in the granting and cancellation of parole," it said.
"The interests of offenders have always been subordinate to the protection of the community. We cannot, however, predict human behaviour and no system can completely eliminate risk."
The statement also rejected another suggestion in Mr Callinan's report that said Bayley's parole file did not contain a detailed analysis and chronology of his history.
While the board admitted its filing system was antiquated, it did not accept the files were chaotic.
It said the files were voluminous, containing items such as the prisoner's criminal record, a number of reports and victims' submissions.
The statement said the board took into account the attitude of victims and had 651 people on a victims' register who were routinely notified of a parolee's progress, likely release and release date.
