Malcolm Aaron Park returns to court after assaulting five guards

Details of a violent assault on prison guards has been revealed as the man responsible returns to court from behind bars.

A man has faced court after assaulting five prison guards while incarcerated.

Malcolm Aaron Park, 34, pleaded guilty to one serious assault on a corrective services officer in the Ipswich Magistrates Court.

The assault occurred on March 30, 2021, in the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, when the prison guard instructed Park to return to his cell.

Park told the guard, “f--k off I’m not going back to my cell,” and he tried to close the door to the area where he was so the guard couldn’t reach him.

When the guard asked him to let go of the door and to guide him back to his cell, Park punched him in the face.

The guards were able to restrain Park shortly after, and the guard wasn’t injured.

Park was previously sentenced in 2016 for four previous assaults on prison guards throughout 2015 and 2016 – which the court heard were more serious.

Court heard Park‘s most serious offence occurred when a community service officer was visiting for a welfare check and Park covered the camera with tape. When the guards went to remove the tape, Park verbally abused one of them and pushed him to the ground.

Park repeatedly punched him in the head and ear and kicked him in the hip – resulting in bruising and swelling.

The other assaults included one incident where he, seemingly unprovoked, said “f--k off you c---s” to a guard and punched him in the stomach while walking back to his cell.

Park was further involved in a physical fight in the prison yards on another occasion, and he punched two guards that tried to restrain him, causing a large cut above one of their eyes.

He was sentenced to six months imprisonment for each of those offences in 2016, to run cumulatively.

At the time of this most recent offence, Park was still serving a sentence he received on April, 30 2021 for a wounding offence.

The sentence was scheduled to conclude on December 5, 2026, with parole eligibility set for June 5, 2023.

The court heard that Park had a disadvantaged background as his father was in jail for much of his upbringing; Park lived on streets and was in and out of foster care as a result.

He was also diagnosed with ADHD as a child and has been diagnosed with PTSD since he’s been in prison.

Magistrate Kathleen Payne said she took Park’s disadvantaged upbringing into account, but also noted the seriousness of his offending, given his repeated violent offending against prison guards.

“They don’t sign up to be assaulted and they deserve not to be assaulted,” she said.

For Park’s latest assault charge, Magistrate Payne sentenced him to nine months imprisonment.

Park’s parole release was pushed to August 6 2023, and the expiry of his sentence was pushed back to August 5 2027.