Stanley Vanu jailed for three months over remand centre prison officer assault

A prisoner who punched a female officer and tore her hair has been sentenced for the vicious assault.

A prisoner has been given three extra months of jail time for a sickening assault on a female prison officer at the Metropolian Remand Centre.

A prisoner has received an effective three months’ extra jail time for a sickening assault on a female officer.

Stanley Vanu, 19, punched the worker and tore her hair out in a brutal attack at the Metropolitan Remand Centre in March last year.

The victim’s head was slammed into a metal kitchen bench during the onslaught in the jail’s Attwood unit, leaving her face bloodied.

A summary of the events revealed in the County Court showed that Vanu, who was 18 at the time, had reacted to one of his mates being sent to a holding cell.

He put his food down and approached the officer as two colleagues tried to keep him away.

The victim’s head was slammed into a metal kitchen bench. Picture: Ian Currie

Vanu had been on remand over an armed robbery at the time of the March incident.

The officer suffered pain, a bruised and swollen nose and lost a clump of hair.

The long-term effect on her life had been profound, a victim impact statement showed.

It said she had ongoing problems with her nose, had to shave off her hair and still suffered pain which had an impact on her energy, sleep and mobility.

Justice Kate Hawkins said an attack on a custody officer was an inherently serious offence carried out on someone just doing their job.

She said it was an attack of “dramatic intensity”.

“The CCTV footage of the incident shows that your attack against her was entirely unprovoked. Your actions are without motivation or reason and are clearly unplanned,” Justice Hawkins said.

The New Zealand-born Vanu pleaded guilty to one count of recklessly causing injury.

He had previously been sentenced to a maximum two years and four months over an armed robbery, with a non-parole period of 14 months.

Justice Hawkins sentenced Vanu to nine months for the prison bashing.

Six months of that was to be concurrent with the armed robbery stretch, leaving an effective jail term of three months.

Originally published as Stanley Vanu jailed for three months over remand centre prison officer assault