Assaults add extra time to rapist’s term

A CONVICTED rapist was given more time behind bars after he coward- punched a prison guard in a violent rampage at the Townsville Correctional Centre.

Frederick Raymond Mitchell knocked a corrective service officer unconscious when he punched him without warning.

Mitchell had been asked to exit his cell about 3.30pm on March 29, and complied with the guards before striking.

The 26- year- old pleaded guilty to three counts of serious assault of a corrective services officer and one count of assault or obstruct a corrective services officer. Police prosecutor Liam Wise said Mitchell was standing behind one of the guards when he punched him in the jaw.

“He struck ( the guard) from behind, causing him to fall to the floor unconscious,” Mr Wise said.

“Other officers responded … the defendant threw another punch to the left eye of an officer. He was taken to the ground and stabilised …. ( another officer) was kicked in the right hand while trying to gain control of the defendant.”

The first guard hit regained consciousness and was taken to the Townsville Hospital.

The court heard he had to undergo scans after doctors showed concerns about bumps on his head from where he landed after losing consciousness.

As Mitchell was being transferred to a detention unit for violent inmates he spat on a fourth guard. Mr Wise argued that attack could be seen as just as serious as the physical attacks due to the chance of the guard contracting a contagious disease. The court heard Mitchell was fearful for his own safety at the time of the attack because he had recently been transferred from a protected unit into the mainstream prison population.

Mitchell was serving a 13year- sentence for a “heinous” attack on an elderly woman in 2011.

Mr Wise said Mitchell raped the woman in her own home before beating the victim and urinating on her.

Magistrate Howard Osbourne took into account the lengthy term of imprisonment Mitchell was already serving, as well the need to condemn attacks on prison officers when sentencing Mitchell to three years’ imprisonment, to be served cumulative to his current sentence.

Mitchell will be eligible to apply for parole on March 26, 2023.