A notorious former gang boss complained of being "sick of this bullshit" as he held a makeshift blade to a fellow prisoner's throat during the first ever hostage situation at Canberra's jail.
Details of the incident, which lasted nearly two hours, were revealed in the ACT Supreme Court on Tuesday as Damien Glenn Featherstone, 34, was sentenced to an extra four years behind bars.
He was already serving a jail term that was not due to expire until November 2025, meaning he will be locked up until late 2029 given his latest crimes were committed in custody and he is no longer entitled to parole.
Featherstone had previously pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful confinement and making a demand with a threat to kill over the March 2021 hostage incident.
His new sentence also includes time for offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, assaulting two front-line community service providers, and possessing a prohibited weapon.
The former Brothers 4 Life chapter leader committed those crimes in November 2020, when he slashed the face of a fellow prisoner he wrongly suspected of being a paedophile while leading a five-on-one bashing.
An agreed statement of facts outlines how Featherstone also stomped on the victim of the 2020 attack, which ended with him discarding a "shiv" that was found to have the man's blood and skin on it.
Police later intercepted phone calls the 34-year-old made from behind bars, during which he said he had "slashed up this rock spider with a razor".
The subsequent hostage situation unfolded a few months later when guards found Featherstone in his Alexander Maconochie Centre cell, holding a makeshift blade to the throat of an inmate who owed him tobacco, on a Saturday morning.
When correctional officers opened the cell door, Featherstone pointed a blade at one of them and warned him not to come any closer.
He then turned to another guard and said words to the effect of: "If anybody comes into this cell, I'm cutting his throat."
Throughout the incident, which spanned a total of one hour and 41 minutes, Featherstone demanded medication and permission to see his psychologist and an Indigenous liaison officer.
More guards eventually arrived to try to defuse the situation, prompting Featherstone to remark: "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 finally let the victim go when the man expressed an interest in converting to Islam, which is the religion the former gang leader practises.
After being handcuffed, he surrendered two makeshift bladed weapons.
Featherstone subsequently blamed his actions on hallucinations and a paranoid belief people were plotting to kill him.
Now locked up in Sydney's Long Bay jail, Featherstone faced court via audio-visual link to be sentenced on Tuesday.
In his submissions, chief prosecutor Anthony Williamson SC said the hostage must have felt like he had been detained for "an eternity" during the "extreme" incident.
"The offending caused a critical incident in the prison, resulting in a stand-off between the offender and corrections officers who brought in a specialist negotiator," Mr Williamson said.
"The offending would invariably have been truly terrifying for the victim."
Mr Williamson described the November 2020 slashing attack, which also involved Kokomo's killer Frederick Tuifua, as "frenzied, ferocious and vicious".
Defence barrister John Purnell SC, instructed by solicitor Jacob Robertson, successfully argued Justice Michael Elkaim should find special circumstances arose from Featherstone's psychiatric history.
As he ultimately decided to extend Featherstone's sentence until November 2029, Justice Elkaim noted the offender had only "limited" prospects for rehabilitation after spending "most of his life" in custody.
"However, he is only 34 years of age and his future must not be determined entirely by his past," the judge said.
"There must be some hope given to him of entering and remaining in society."
Mr Williamson had earlier addressed Featherstone's past in his submissions, describing the "intractable" offender's criminal history as "utterly appalling".
"Since 2004, the offender has only spent 451 days in the community," he said.
"The longest period since 2004 that the offender has managed to last in the community before being arrested on account of further offending or breaching bail or parole conditions is 70 days."
Now, Mr Williamson said, Featherstone must be regarded as "one of the small number of offenders who must be imprisoned for a significant period of time for no other reason than to protect the community."
