Child murderer tries to kill again
Convicted murderer Stephen Williams has been sentenced to preventive detention for the attempted murder of a prison inmate.
The brutal attack on fellow convicted killer Nikki Roper was described by Crown prosecutor Scott McColgan as ‘‘sustained and ferocious’’.
Williams’ guilty plea to the charge made the crime his 97th conviction.
Williams appeared in the High Court at Auckland yesterday, where McColgan asked Justice Kit Toogood to consider a sentence of preventive detention.
Preventive detention is an open-ended prison sentence ‘‘to protect the community from those who pose a significant and ongoing risk to the safety of its members’’, according to the Sentencing Act 2002.
The court was told Williams had an ambition to stay in jail for the rest of his life, as ‘‘punishment’’ to himself for the earlier murder of his stepdaughter.
He had told authorities he would kill again if he could.
Williams received a life sentence for the murder of his 6-year-old stepdaughter Coral-Ellen Burrows in 2003, with a 17-year non-parole period.
Roper was also serving a life sentence, for the killing of his ex-girlfriend Alexsis Tovizi in Christchurch in December 2010.
Both were serving their sentences at Auckland Prison at Paremoremo in December.
According to a summary of facts, Williams spent months planning the attack on Roper, after developing a belief that Roper had ‘‘narked’’ on him.
He gained Roper’s trust by tattooing him, and on December 11, 2016, used this guise to lure Roper to his cell where there were no security cameras.
After tattooing Roper he began the attack.
Earlier in the day, Williams had stashed away some broken fluorescent light tubes which he used to stab Roper twice in the neck, before putting Roper in a choke hold, and stomping on his head.
Roper lost consciousness but managed to scramble outside the cell where the attack was caught on security cameras.
Williams continued trying to kill Roper by striking him on the head with a broom so hard that it broke.
He then set about stabbing Roper in the neck with the sharp part of the broom.
The assault only stopped when Corrections had gathered enough guards to enter the landing to pull the men apart, McColgan told Justice Toogood.
Roper was rushed to Auckland city hospital for emergency surgery.
Told that Roper had survived, Williams was said to have expressed ‘‘regret and disappointment’’.
‘‘The brutality of your attack and callous indifference . . . is chilling and disturbing,’’ Justice Toogood said.
‘‘You have made it clear that you intend to act violently and if you can, kill, in the future. It seems to me that you are a very disturbed individual.’’
Justice Toogood said he accepted Williams had a ‘‘considerable level of guilt’’ for Burrows’ murder and had set about ‘‘punishing’’ himself by attempting to remain in prison.
‘‘You remain in a very dark place of self loathing.’’
Asked if he wished to say anything in his defence, Williams replied: ‘‘Nah, I just wanna get sentenced and get out of here.’’
He waived his right to have a lawyer and represented himself.
In 2014, Williams was sentenced for another attack on a fellow inmate.