Officers who have worked with ‘Mad Eyes’ question the sensibility of his 2006 release.
‘He has scared a lot of people in prison,’ said an unnamed officer. ‘He is big, he is crazy, and he is strong. He is obviously mad, but I guess he’s okay when he’s on his meds. But fuck me … You don’t want to cross him if he forgets to take a pill.’
ROSE, Lindsay, DOB: 02/05/1955, received into the HRMCC on September 14, 2001
Extreme High Security: Classification A1
Rose is a convicted serial killer sentenced to five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. He was found guilty of murdering five people between 1984 and 1994.
‘Murder times five,’ Rose’s file reads. ‘Cold-blooded murders. Intelligent and educated. He is capable of manipulative behaviour, particularly to remain in the HRMCC. Allegedly plotted to escape from Long Bay involving the murder of a staff member. Known to produce gaol-made keys. He is a high risk of escape … He continues to access the running track area regularly so he can maintain the garden area. Sees his counsellor for support issues only.’
Poetic is a man called Rose becoming a gardener. Poetic justice is a five-time cold-blooded killer ending up with horrible haemorrhoids. Yep, serial killer Lindsay Rose was noted as an ‘intelligent and educated’ man who spent his time ‘maintaining’ the Supermax garden. He was paid $12 a week to weed and water. He was happy … until he got haemorrhoids.
‘He was moved to Long Bay because he got horrible haemorrhoids,’ said an officer well known to Rose. ‘Not just “ouch” haemorrhoids but the type that sends you permanently into a bed.’
Rose, who shot Fatma Ozonal in a massage parlour before stabbing former girlfriend Kerrie Pang to death as part of a contract killing in Gladesville in 1994, is no longer in Supermax. He is in Long Bay Prison hospital with a very sore arse.
‘He needed to get full-time care,’ said a guard. ‘He had a very bad problem.’
Officers described Rose as a hard worker, who always had the best prison jobs because he was a police informant.
‘He is a massive Dog,’ said another Goulburn officer. ‘He is always going to see police, telling them what he knows. He is constantly going on about Ivan Milat, claiming he knows where his second burial ground is.
‘He always did the gardening wherever he was. He did that because it was a job and he got paid well. In truth, he was a disgusting human being but a good inmate. He was a good worker, polite and easy to deal with. He now has a real problem with the new generation of inmates because they don’t know who he is and they don’t fear him. He thinks he should be respected because he is high profile.’
MILAT, Ivan, DOB: 22/12/1944, received into the HRMCC on September 14, 2001
Extreme High Security: Classification A1.
A serial killer known as the ‘Backpacker Murderer’, Milat is serving seven consecutive life sentences plus 18 years without the possibility of parole for murdering seven people. Aged between 19 and 22, the victims were found in the Belanglo State Forest, near Berrima, in New South Wales. Milat, a road worker at the time, was arrested in 1994.
‘Attempted to escape from Maitland,’ his file reads. ‘He is a self-harm risk and serial appellant and complainant. High risk of instrumental self-harm via hunger strike if things don’t go his way. No evidence of mental illness or disorder. He is noted as compliant with unit routine and polite in his interactions with staff. Milat continues to see his counsellor regularly, and he’s been taking all of his meals. Staff reports he does a good job as unit sweeper.’
Milat doesn’t seem concerned about ditching the digit, the one the not-so-concerned surgeons never intended to sew back on.
‘I don’t regret it, though it was a stupid act,’ Milat said in a letter to his brother Bill Milat, dated 2 February.
A ridiculous thing to do, but in here acts like that are regarded as normal and really not as severe as some. I wonder if I will have enough time to prove my innocence as time flies, but it takes a long time to get a reply from the authority-courts-government. That was a big factor in severing the finger off, to highlight the difficulties of a prisoner who wishes to appeal his case.
The prison controllers seem to think I need some punishment, so they took my plastic plates and cup, and my main meal in a sealed pack is tipped out on a dinner plate, no means given to cut anything up, and I never eat tea at 2 to 2.15 [when they deliver it].
So by the time I do feel like eating at 6 or 6.30, odd, it’s a soggy, cold mess. And they took my Breville away. I always rely on that, use it to reheat, cook other things, even to toast bread.
Unfortunately for the men who guard him, Mr Milat’s bloody mail is only one of his many mischievous misdemeanors.
‘He needs constant supervision and will try anything for attention,’ said a current HRMCC officer. ‘He is famous for it. He can complain all he wants, but the extra attention he receives is warranted.’
Let’s take a look at some of the other things he has done to warrant soggy meals and a ban on toasted cheese …
The doctor slipped the X-ray into the metal slot before flicking on the fluorescent light.
‘Unbelievable,’ he said, pointing to the illuminated black-and-white film. ‘Would you take a look at that. Looks like a razor blade.’ He leaned in closer. ‘Yep – it is. And there’s another one. And another one.’
But that wasn’t all that was in Ivan Milat’s gut. The doctor continued to point at the film, more humoured than horrified.
‘That seems to be a nail clipper chain,’ he continued. ‘And those are staples. It would appear there are 24 in total.’
As a result of this first truly bizarre and sickening stunt in 2001, Milat was found in crippling pain and immediately taken to hospital to have the stationery items removed.
‘He did it as a protest to Goulburn,’ said an officer. ‘He just hated it there.’
Milat was first moved to the jail that he compared to the ‘Bronx’ in another one of his intercepted letters in 1997, when authorities learned he was plotting to escape from Maitland Jail with notorious inmate George Savvas (more on him later). The duo was planning on beating up guards, stealing their uniforms and scaling the prison walls.
So Milat was sent to Goulburn, where officers would squeeze his toothpaste out of its tube several times a week, run metal detectors over his clothes and poke holes through his soap. It was during one of those regular cell searches that guards uncovered a hacksaw blade hidden in a packet of biscuits.
‘It was a tiny blade,’ said a Goulburn officer. ‘And he never had a chance to use it. The bars were all intact and the blade was taken.’
It can be revealed here, for the first time, that Milat was not alone in this biscuit blade escape bid.
‘The guy that helped him was the bloke that bashed a lady in Kings Cross,’ said an officer. ‘His name was Thomas Wilson Hudson. He was a bouncer at the time of the attack, and he’d assaulted a woman before putting her in a 44-gallon drum. He thought he had killed her but the lady survived, and she had no trouble identifying him because Hudson is a bit of a genetic freak in that he can’t grow any hair on his body. He can’t grow anything, and his lack of eyebrows, eyelashes, head hair, face hair … well, you know what I’m saying … That’s what got him busted.
‘Anyway, he was another one in Goulburn, and him and Milat became tight. They had the escape all planned together in the MPU, but they got busted. He was Milat’s offsider for a while, and he was a real dangerous bloke. He had to be moved around Goulburn Jail because he was so dangerous. He was into his martial arts and fitness, and he ended up being deported back to New Zealand because he was too much trouble.’
Hudson got deported and Ivan got moved. Constantly. And he got searched. All the time.
‘That’s why he started with the self-harm,’ another officer said. ‘He thought he would be moved to another jail after he swallowed the razors.’
But he wasn’t. And what came next was tr
uly bizarre, even for a man who snacks on staples …
Milat lodged a complaint to the Information and Privacy Commission New South Wales, claiming his rights had been violated after his X-rays were publicly released and published by media outlets. He demanded up to $40,000 in compensation. The Hon. Charlie Lynn had this to say about the letter in a sitting of the New South Wales parliament:
I wish to comment on a recent report that serial psychopath Ivan Milat has appealed to the New South Wales Privacy Commissioner, Mr Chris Puplick, to investigate a complaint regarding the public release of X-rays taken when he swallowed three razor blades, 24 staples and a nail clipper chain when he was in solitary confinement in Goulburn Gaol. Milat claimed that this was a breach of his privacy. I understand that Milat’s claim was rejected by the ombudsman. However, it has been taken up by the New South Wales Privacy Commissioner. If the complaint is accepted, I understand that Milat will be in the running for up to $40,000 in compensation.
I understand that Milat is currently detained in Supermax, a 70-bed, high-risk management unit within Goulburn Gaol. I also understand that authorities within the prison system believe that Milat’s stunt in swallowing the razor blades, staples and nail clippers was staged to force his transfer to a lower security prison. The editorial in the Daily Telegraph of 31 October got it right when it suggested that if there were to be any inquiry at all into this matter, it should be conducted within the prison system to establish how an inmate, such as Milat, obtained razor blades and the other paraphernalia he swallowed.
The editorial also reminded us of the case last month of the convicted rapist Bilal Skaf. Mr Puplick’s office was of the view that his parents, if not Skaf himself, could be eligible for a similar level of compensation over the release of security camera footage of an attempt to smuggle letters out of prison. Chris Puplick believes that criminals like Ivan Milat and Bilal Skaf have a right to privacy. In Milat’s case, he has suggested that any pressure applied to his office to reject Milat’s claim could amount to corruption under the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act. If this is the case, we need to advise the New South Wales Privacy commissioner that he is totally out of touch with community expectations. We also need to change the ICAC Act to ensure that it cannot be manipulated by misguided serial do-gooders.
Ivan Milat forfeited any right he had to ever see the light of day when he was convicted of the premeditated, cold-blooded murder of seven backpackers. The only right he has is to a jug of water, a slice of bread and a bowl of rice in a small, dark cell every day for the rest of his miserable life.
Water, bread and rice – how about a PlayStation then? Milat’s next stunt was to go on a nine-day hunger strike after his requests to have a PlayStation put in his cell were refused. Milat said he required the gaming console to ‘exercise his mind’, and he refused all meals over a nine-day period in protest. He dropped 25kg in little over a week, going from 85kg to 60kg.
‘There’s no inmate on my watch who would ever get anything close to a PlayStation, particularly Australia’s worst serial killer,’ said then prison boss Ron Woodham. ‘I knew he’d start eating again because he likes his food too much. He can stage as many protests as he likes, but there’d be no point if he got one because he needs two hands to use it.’
Milat was carefully monitored throughout his hunger strike, with medics and prison staff on hand and ready to administer food intravenously to prevent Milat from dying in custody.
Milat has been involved in several other protests while incarcerated in Goulburn; one saw him again refuse to eat because his television reception was fuzzy. He also slammed his hand into a door and required 24 stiches in another painful bid to get out of Goulburn.
Just like its predecessor, the infamous Katingal – the Long Bay Jail Supermax that was razed to the ground after its barbaric practices were revealed – the HRMCC is not without controversy or critics.
Former Head of Corrections Tony Vinson believes the jail should not be used as a long-term solution for problematic inmates.
‘I criticised Mr Carr publicly at the time he opened it,’ Vinson, now a University of Sydney professor, said. ‘When he opened it, Mr Carr said, “We are going to brick them in.” To protect a prison officer’s life or someone else’s life, it may be required to do something like this on the short-term. As an enduring solution it strokes the sentiments of politicians, the sentiments of all those people who claim they have brought it upon themselves. It is far better to disperse these inmates across the system. It’s a theatre stage. The rationale for having large prison populations is that people sleep better at night. That is the lie of it all. The use of a Supermax on this basis is wrong, and the nature of the offence rather than a judgment of the individual is also wrong.’
Former NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Cameron Murphy went as far as calling on the United Nations to shut down the prison he compared to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, the infamous US ‘black site’ where the protections of the Geneva Convention were ignored.
Murphy called conditions at the southern New South Wales prison both cruel and degrading. He called on the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture to visit the facility in the council’s Shadow Report on Australia and Torture.
‘Prisoners are kept in cells that measure two by three metres for 22 hours or more a day,’ said council president Murphy. ‘When an inmate enters the HRMU, they are kept in segregation for as long as two weeks. This is having a significant impact on the mental health of inmates.
‘Article 16 of the convention against torture prohibits cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The NSW Council for Civil Liberties is concerned that conditions at the HRMU violate the convention against torture.’
Murphy also recommended that the UN meet with the human rights commissioner and the NSW ombudsman.
Murphy said the council had ‘made a mockery’ of the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture by calling on them to investigate the Supermax facility.
The UN never investigated the prison; MPs declared the council’s request ludicrous and a play for headlines.
And maybe it was.
Now a member of the Australian Labor Party vying for a seat in the Division of Banks in Sydney’s south-west, Mr Murphy did not seem so passionate about the issue when contacted for this book. He refused to comment about the subject he was so eager to pursue while in his former role.
Maybe defending Australia’s worst prisoners is not a good move for a politician wanting votes?
6
TERROR
Mobile Horror
14 February 2015
The mobile phone was found under the bed.
‘What do we have here?’ asked the officer as he searched the inmate’s cell after an intelligence tip-off. ‘Nice little phone, hey? He won’t be calling Mummy tonight.’
A SIM card and an SD (Secure Digital) card were also seized from the cell, located in the Lebanese Wing of the racially segregated Goulburn Jail.
No one was surprised or shocked by the find.
Just another mobile phone, they thought … at least until they saw what was on it.
‘It was hardcore ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] material,’ said an officer who asked to remain anonymous. ‘Beheading videos and full-on jihadist stuff.’
Details of the find, which sent a terror shockwave through the prison and further heightened concerns that the prison is becoming a terrorist breeding ground, can be revealed for the first time.
‘It was absolutely shocking,’ said the officer. ‘We have never had anything like that in the prison before. Terror is a problem in prison, but we never thought they would be getting stuff like this – it’s a bloody worry. Just who sent it in to them? Why did they send it to them? This is serious stuff.’
Goulburn Jail is officially on terror alert with hardcore Muslims suspected of waging jihad from behind bars. Intelligence files are kept on several Islamic inmates. Their mail is screened, their phone ca
lls are monitored, and the gathered information is sent to Australia’s peak terror-fighting body, ASIO (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation).
‘It’s a real big thing for CIG [Corrections Intelligence Group] at the moment,’ revealed another officer. ‘The group’s time is split between gathering intelligence on outlaw motorcycle clubs and Islamic inmates. There is a feeling around that [an act of terror] could be plotted in prison. A feeling that something big could happen. They are getting more brazen overseas, and we have a microcosm of that community in this prison.’
The officer said most Muslim inmates in Goulburn Jail are kept up to date with the activities of terrorists through easily accessible and legal media.
‘They are getting information through TVs, radios and newspapers,’ he said. ‘They know it’s escalating outside, and a lot of them want to be involved.’
ASIO has a special interest in Goulburn Jail with the prison home to convicted terrorists, including Khaled Cheikho, Moustafa Cheikho, Mohamed Ali Elomar, Abdul Rakib Hasan and Mohammed Omar Jamal. Labelled the ‘Terror Five’, these men were sentenced to a maximum of 28 years for plotting a series of terror attacks across Sydney. They were among the first to be charged with hardline anti-terror legislation introduced following the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
‘Information is found in letters all the time,’ said the officer. ‘It is gathered from Intel and sent to ASIO. ASIO is across everything that happens here, and they have a lot of contact with us because of who we have and what they are doing.’
Aside from harbouring Australia’s worst terrorists in our equivalent to Guantanamo, Goulburn also faces a unique problem caused by the prison’s controversial policy of racial segregation.
Australia's Most Murderous Prison: Behind the Walls of Goulburn Jail Page 10
