Adam Heading: Former Alexander Maconochie Centre guard loses appeal over unfair dismissal

A veteran prison guard lost his job of 11 years after throwing an aggressive inmate to the ground, with the prisoner himself telling investigators “other officers do worse things”.

Adam Heading (inset) insists he was unfairly sacked from his job as a prison guard

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A veteran prison guard has lost his bid to get his old job back after he was sacked for throwing one of Canberra’s most dangerous prisoners to the ground in a “bear hug” in what he insists was an act of self-defence.

Adam Heading, now a real estate agent, was a prison guard at Canberra’s notorious Alexander Maconochie Centre until early 2019, when an internal investigation concluded he had used excessive force on a prisoner in the jail’s “management unit”, a wing of the jail for prisoners who have “demonstrated particularly violent or aggressive behaviour”.

The prisoner himself told investigators he had seen “other officers do worse things” and that Mr Heading had “done nothing”.

Except in urgent circumstances, prison guards have to warn prisoners if they are about to use force, and have to give enough time for the warning to be understood.

The Alexander Maconochie Centre on Canberra’s outskirts.

The Fair Work Commission in April rejected Mr Heading’s claim that he reacted when the prisoner threatened to smash Mr Heading’s “f**king head in”.

The commission’s deputy president, John Kovacic, found Mr Heading’s use of force was “unprovoked”.

“There is nothing in any of the CCTV footage which supports (Mr Heading’s) contention that his use of force was appropriate in the circumstances, particularly as the detainee was standing still with his arms at his side in the seconds before he was taken down,” Mr Kovacic said.

This week, the full bench of the Fair Work Commission rejected Mr Heading’s appeal of the earlier decision.

Mr Heading argued he was trained to use force even if he noticed “subtle signs of danger” or if “something feels wrong”.

Mr Heading’s account of the incident was that he was thinking: “If he gets a good punch on me, now, worst case scenario, I’m dead”.

Adam Heading was sacked as a prison guard from Canberra's notorious Alexander Maconochie Centre. He has previously been commended for saving an inmate’s life.

The Alexander Maconochie Centre has a history of mismanagement.

But the full bench of the commission found the prisoner only threatened to “smash” Mr Heading after he had been tackled to the ground.

“This series of events could not constitute self-defence on any view,” the full bench of the commission found.

The decision means ACT Corrective Services Commissioner Jon Peach’s decision to sack Mr Heading stands.

Mr Heading, a top former cricketer and Aussie rules player told The Canberra Star he stands by his account of the day but has run out of legal options.