Riot at Wolston jail a diversion for attack on Daniel Morcombe’s killer Brett Cowan

PRISONERS started one of Wolston jail’s worst riots in an attempt to create a diversion so inmates could launch another attack on Brett Peter Cowan.

PRISONERS started a riot in an attempt to cause a diversion so they could attack child killer Brett Peter Cowan.

The Courier-Mail can reveal inmates heated up jam in a microwave and were planning to throw it on Cowan who was in the exercise yard of a jail block.

They were also armed with a hot sandwich maker and sharpened broom sticks, in what has been described as one of the worst riots at Wolston jail, west of Brisbane.

Cowan is serving a life sentence for the 2003 abduction and murder of Sunshine Coast schoolboy Daniel Morcombe.

Brett Peter Cowan was found guilty of the 2003 abduction and murder of Daniel Morcombe and has become a marked man in the Wolston Correctional Centre. Picture: Supplied

The riot last month follows multiple incidents involving Cowan, including a 2016 assault in which he was given a “hot shower” of boiling water by another prisoner.

“They were going to throw it (the hot jam) on him,” a prison officer said of the latest plan.

“He was in the exercise yard when they started going off, they all went outside.

“It was a diversion. They didn’t get to him.”

Prison staff at the jail took down the prisoners who had self-harmed and were covered in blood, in the bizarre attempt which was recorded as a “level one” incident.

Cowan is still on protection in a unit at the Wolston Correctional Centre, which is filled with murderers and sex offenders.

One of the recreation yards at Wolston Correctional Centre where prisoners started a riot to create a diversion so they could attack Cowan while he was in the exercise yard. Picture: Liam Kidston.

In a twist, one of the prisoners involved in the riot was last night on the run after allegedly escaping a hospital’s mental health facility in Brisbane’s north for the second time.

After the Wolston riot, Chris Howard, 34, was sent to Woodford jail and then to a mental health unit at Prince Charles Hospital.

Police last night appealed for public assistance to find Howard but urged the public not to approach him.

He allegedly climbed out a window at the hospital early Thursday, after his first alleged escape from the facility on Saturday.

“Some screw saw him at a pub and they recaptured him,” an officer said.

“They sent him back to MSU (Maximum Security Unit), then back to Prince Charles Hospital and he escaped again.”

It’s understood he was jailed after breaching parole.