The most dangerous prisoners in NSW including Bassam Hamzy

Being locked up isn’t enough to stop some of the state’s worst offenders. From rapists and terrorists to underworld bosses and murderers, these are NSW’s most dangerous inmates.

Some of the most violent and dangerous criminals, thankfully, call NSW’s prisons home.

Their crimes earned them notoriety for the sheer abhorrent nature. But behind bars some have only added to their gruesome reputation.

The state’s correctional centres house some of the most dangerous people in the country, from terrorists to child rapists, and places like Goulburn Supermax has held the majority of them.

REBECCA BUTTERFIELD

Pictured Rebecca Butterfield in prison.

One of the state’s most violent prisoners – Rebecca Jane Butterfield – was ordered to remain behind bars for three more years last month as the convicted killer’s torrid last 18 months in jail was revealed.

Butterfield’s abhorrent actions in prison include stabbing a fellow inmate 33 times and harming herself to lure guards into her cell before attacking them, among other tactics used to terrorise staff.

Documents from the Supreme Court detailed Butterfield’s reign of terror showed no signs of slowing down in 2020 as she awaited the prospect of finally being released.

“I am going to kill again, I will kill when I get out,” Butterfield reportedly said during one violent episode last year.

So disturbing is her reputation that the state government has successfully had her held in jail, despite serving out a sentence for a 2003 manslaughter.

Her continuing detention order was extended for another three years by the Supreme Court in January.

WARREN GRAEME HAYTER

Warren Graeme Hayter, a convicted serial paedophile

Nicknamed “the caveman” Warren Hayter has abused numerous children over the past 30 years.

The depravity of his abuse of vulnerable kids resulted in authorities keeping a close eye on him when caught for his latest breach.

As one of the country’s worst child sex offenders, Hayter was sent back to jail last October after flaunting the strict conditions that allowed him to live in the community.

He has abused children across three states since the 1980s but was returned to prison last year after a surveillance operation caught him buying a mobile phone in Burwood.

Hayter once nicknamed himself “the caveman” and is a serial paedophile with a history of targeting handicapped young boys.

He was jailed for 11 months in Burwood Local Court last October, with a non-parole period of six months, for breaching an Intensive Corrections Order.

One of the conditions of the order was that he was prohibited from owning a phone after a similar breach in 2013 involving him ‘friending’ young boys on Facebook.

Hayter’s long and sick criminal history of preying on young boys was laid out to the court, including his first offence when he lured an eight-year-old boy off an Oberon street in 1984.

He will be subject to an extended supervision order when he is released in April.

BASSAM HAMZY

Bassam Hamzy in a mugshot from 2011.

Despite spending a fair chunk of his adult life in jail, Bassam Hamzy continues to wield influence in Sydney’s underworld from his Goulburn Supermax cell.

Hamzy has been in jail since 1999 for a string of crimes, but most notably for a shooting murder in Kings Cross at the age of 19.

Though that has not stopped him from being on the radar of police, who have in recent years linked him to several high profile crimes the Brothers 4 founder has since been convicted of.

He is not eligible for parole for at least another 15 years.

TUKI LAWRENCE

Considered in the “high risk” category of offenders behind bars by authorities, Tukiterangi “Tuki” Lawrence was ordered to stay in jail after finishing his sentence in 2019.

The interim continuing detention order was sought on fears from police of his support for violent extremism.

Tukiterangi “Tuki” Lawrence

Documents from the 2019 Supreme Court case detail his links to Islamic extremism.

“Mr Lawrence reported that he remains committed to Sharia Law and Jihad; however he abides by the law of the land,” the documents stated.

“He stated that Jihad ‘was a struggle or fight against the enemies of Islam and/or internal spiritual struggle against sin’. Despite this, he reported that if he were in an Islamic State and engaged in stealing, he would cut off his hand and that of his family members, including his daughter if she was of age, if they engaged in stealing.

“He identified that religion is his highest priority and described himself as a Jihadi.”

SCOTT DAVID LYNN

The NSW Government is fighting to keep a man who killed someone in a chance encounter in 2006 behind bars, under a controversial order that keeps high-risk offenders in prison after they have served their time.

Supreme Court Justice Natalie Adams said in a preliminary judgment this month that a path forward must be found for Scott David Lynn.

The Tamworth-born man has been assessed by psychiatrists and psychologists numerous times over his years in the justice system.

Experts have diagnosed no mental illnesses, but say Lynn has various personality disorders, as well as an “unusual” tendency to assume hostility from those around him that borders on the extreme — even when compared to other violent offenders.

He is one of just six people in the state on a non-terrorism related continuing detention order (CDO), which has kept him in prison since his sentence for Local Court offences expired in May 2019.

The NSW Government now wants the order extended for three years.

JESSICA CAMILLERI

Jessica Camilleri’s actions shocked the nation in July 2019.

She was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter, after a trial in December.

Jessica Camilleri

Camilleri stabbed her mother – Rita – more than 100 times. She then took her decapitated head to a neighbour’s front yard in St Clair.

The sheer disturbing nature of the case was again in the headlines last week after the triple 0 call in the wake of the incident was released by the Supreme Court ahead of her sentencing.

In the call she passes the phone to a puzzled neighbour who briefly speaks with the operator before a seemingly coherent Camilleri comes back to explain the situation.

“Mum has had enough of me because I admit I’ve been a challenge and it’s this ongoing thing has been going for months,” she said.

“Anyway she had enough of me, she grabbed me by the hair and dragged me from my room all the way to the kitchen. She got a knife and she tried to stab me with it, and I grabbed the knife and thought she was going to stab me so I stabbed her back.

“And I was so heated up with anger, I just kept stabbing and stabbing and stabbing her and I took off her head.”

SLD

The crimes of SLD were found to be “horrific”

**GRAPHIC**

Known only as a pseudonym “SLD” due to his young age when he committed one of the most abhorrent crimes, this offender could be one of the worst behind bars.

His 20 year jail sentence for killing a three-year-old child when he was just 13 expired in January and the state has been seeking a continuing detention order since late last year as the clock ticked down on his sentence.

In 2002 SLD broke into a home in the middle of the night before removing the girl, 3, from her bed, carrying her 300 metres away before stabbing her with a steak knife, according to court documents.

He then dumped her body in a nearby patch of long grass and SLD “went out of his way to play with police”, according to court documents.

His sentencing judge described the killing as “senseless and savage” and that SLD’s “background is as bleak and disturbing as his crime” after a disturbed childhood stunted his development.

As an adult in jail he has received further prison terms for assaulting and stabbing guards and other inmates.

The Supreme Court granted an interim order in December keeping SLD inside, which expires this week, until the CDO is decided on.

SHANE GEOFFREY WYNNE

Wynne is a repeat abuser of women.

The majority of people remanded in jail despite serving their sentence are held because of their links to terrorism.

Only six non-terror related offenders are currently subject to a continuing detention order, but the state of NSW is hoping to add a seventh.

Shane Geoffrey Wynne was in December ordered to remain in prison on an interim order granted by the court after it heard how high risk authorities consider him.

Wynne had been serving a 12-year jail term for a horrific set of crimes including rape and assault but court documents show he has a shocking history for abusing his former partners.

The details of what earned him that jail sentence involve him repeatedly punching a woman in the face, bundling her into a car at knifepoint and threatening to kill her and her daughter.

He also raped the woman in a shocking end to the ordeal.

“I should have done this long ago. I’m going to kill you both,” he said.

“Kiss your daughter goodbye, I’m going to cut her throat and throw her in the river and do the same to you.”

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