Video of beheader’s prison attack
Notorious mum-killer Jessica Camilleri has had a year added onto her earliest possible release date after she assaulted two prison guards and ripped their hair out.
Camilleri was handed a 16-and-a-half-year jail sentence for brutally killing her mother inside their shared western Sydney home in 2019 in what was a crime which shocked the state.
The 29-year-old was found guilty of manslaughter over the bloody attack, in which she stabbed her mother at least 100 times, carved up her face and decapitated her with a flurry of blows.
She was sentenced to a lengthy term behind bars at Silverwater Prison, where she subsequently attacked and wounded two corrective services officers within a matter of months.
Camilleri pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer and inflicting actual bodily harm.
On Monday, she appeared before Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court where she was sentenced by Judge Sarah Huggett.
In August 2021, prison guards were leaving Camilleri’s cell when she rushed towards the door and slipped through the opening.
She was told to return to her cell and started to edge back towards the door when a correctional officer turned her head to speak to another inmate.
A video showed Camilleri reaching out and yanking a fistful of hair from the guard’s scalp before being restrained by three officers.
The victim was left with a long bald patch where her hair had been “ripped from the scalp”.
During a sentencing hearing last month, the victim - who cannot be identified - sobbed as she told the court about the devastating impact of the “excruciating” attack.
“I felt lost and violated for weeks after the assault,” the woman said through tears.
“It has caused me pain and ongoing sadness and I have often found myself crying at work or during moments when I am alone.”
The corrections officer told the court that she struggled with post traumatic stress disorder, hypervigilance, and heightened anxiety due to Camilleri’s assault.
Two days after the assault, Camilleri admitted she had pulled the officer’s hair but said she thought it was “just a few strands”.
“I don’t like (her),” she told police.
“I just wanted to give (her) a little bit of the taste of (her) own medicine for the s*** they’ve been doing to me.”
Less than two months later, the 29-year-old attacked a second female prison guard in a similar manner while out in the yard.
While officers were trying to take her back to her cell, body-worn video footage showed her grabbing a chunk of the guard’s hair and forcefully pulling it.
The woman screamed out in pain, but Camilleri did not let go until she was restrained by another officer.
The prison officer lost a “significant amount” of her hair during the attack, which left two bald patches on her scalp.
“The consequences of this assault have had profound and lasting effects on my life,” the guard told the court last month.
“The assault has shattered my sense of safety.”
The prison guard said she had endured anxiety, depressive episodes, PTSD and terrifying nightmares as a result of the attack.
For her mother’s gruesome murder, Camilleri was sentenced to 16-and-a-half years in jail, with a 12-year non parole period of 12 years, which meant she was first eligible for release in July 2031.
On Monday she was sentenced to 22 months in jail for attacking the two prison guards, with a non-parole period of 12 months.
Judge Huggett effectively pushed Camilleri’s non–parole period back one year to July 2032.
