A former chapter leader of the Brothers 4 Life crime gang, who threatened to cut a fellow prisoner at Canberra's jail "from ear to ear", has been sentenced to four years in jail by the ACT Supreme Court.
Damien Featherstone, 34, pleaded guilty to a raft of charges, ranging from making a demand with a threat to kill, unlawfully confining another person and assault in company – related to two separate attacks on prisoners in the jail in 2020 and 2021.
In the first instance, Featherstone and a group of others attacked a man they had accused of being a paedophile.
Featherstone entered the fight with a makeshift sharpened weapon, slashing the victim's face, before stomping on him, slashing him on the back of his head and neck, and kicking him in the face and stomach.
When prison officers at the Alexander Maconochie Centre tried to intervene, Featherstone pointed the shiv at the guards and warned them off saying:
"F*** off or I'll get you".
The evidence against Featherstone included intercepted telephone conversations where he made reference to the incident.
"I slashed up this rock spider with a razor," Featherstone said.
In the second attack, Featherstone took a fellow prisoner hostage, warning the man in advance about what he planned to do.
When prisoner officers tried to intervene he made several threats to kill the man.
"I am sick of this bullshit, this is what it comes to. I will cut him from ear to ear if I have to," Featherstone told the officers.
In the end, the victim was released after he said he was interested in converting to Islam, which is Featherstone's religion.
When the incident was over, Featherstone surrendered two makeshift bladed weapons to an extraction team.
The first weapon was about 15 centimetres in length and made up of two razor blades secured to plastic cutlery handles, the second weapon was a piece of wood, sharpened at one end and secured to a plastic makeshift handle.
'Utterly appalling criminal history'
Prosecutor Anthony Williamson urged the court to apply the full force of the law.
Mr Williamson also questioned the two letters of apology, which arrived on one piece of paper, late in proceedings, questioning whether Featherstone had any true remorse.
"The inference is that the document containing the two letters has been produced purely for the purposes of sentence and not for the benefit of any victims," he said.
Mr Williamson conceded that Featherstone had exhibited symptoms of mental illness over a long period.
But he questioned whether the cause might have been Featherstone's illicit drug use, and suggested even if the court was concerned about his mental illness he should still be subject to a long sentence.
"He is one of a small number of offenders who must be imprisoned for a significant period of time for no other reason than to protect the community," Mr Williamson said.
"The offender has an utterly appalling criminal history."
Mr Williamson told the court that since 2004 Featherstone has been in custody for 451 days, and the longest he has stayed in the community without offending is 70 days.
Justice Michael Elkaim said in his judgement that the prosecution case was overwhelmingly strong, partly because many of the offences were captured on CCTV.
He noted Featherstone's struggle with mental health issues was a relevant factor, including how he had reported hearing voices, and was increasingly concerned about his safety around the time of the offences.
But Justice Elkaim said there were still questions about his progress since he was last sentenced.
"The current offences contradict the slender hope that was held out for rehabilitation," he said.
Today, a total of four years was added to the sentence he is currently serving.
The fact the offences were committed in jail, means he is no longer eligible for parole, and will not be released before the end of 2029.
