Anita Cobby’s killer Gary Murphy told police he ‘slipped over in the shower’

Five prisoners have been placed into segregation after one of the men who brutally murdered and raped Anita Cobby was bashed in a prison shower block. Gary Murphy has refused to tell police who was responsible, simply saying he slipped over.

• The savage crime that shocked Sydney
• Cobby killer Michael Murphy dead

One of the men who murdered Sydney nurse and beauty queen Anita Cobby is refusing to tell police who gang bashed him in a prison shower block, saying he simply slipped over.

The Daily Telegraph revealed Gary Murphy, 61, was rushed to St Vincent’s Hospital with serious head injuries after being set upon by a group of up to eight inmates at Long Bay Jail on Tuesday.

Five prisoners have been placed into segregation after the Tuesday bashing.A Corrective Services NSW spokeswoman said on Wednesday evening “five possible assailants” had been placed in segregation following the incident.

It is understood Murphy used the common jailhouse excuse that he slipped in the shower, rather than risking further inmate retribution by giving up his alleged attackers.

Murder victim Anita Cobby was abducted, raped and murdered in 1986. Picture: Supplied

Gary Murphy is fighting for life.

Murdered nurse Anita Cobby.

The husband of murdered nurse Anita Cobby wants to give the jail inmates who savagely bashed one of her killers "a bottle of champagne” to thank them, adding: “I hope they broke a lot of bones.’’

Gary Murphy, now aged 61, received injuries that were so severe a helicopter was flown into Long Bay Jail on Tuesday before paramedics decided instead to transfer him by road to St Vincent’s Hospital at Darlinghurst.

Murphy, one of five low-lifes who raped and murdered Ms Cobby before leaving her battered body in a paddock at Prospect.

The 1986 killing shocked the nation and remains one of Sydney’s most notorious crimes.

Murphy, who suffered severe head injuries in the jail attack, was on Tuesday night in the intensive care unit in a serious but stable condition.

Ms Cobby’s husband John Cobby told The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday night: “I’d like to know who they are so I can buy them a bottle of champagne,” Mr Cobby said.

John Cobby wants to give the inmates a bottle of champagne for bashing Murphy.

John, pictured with Anita, hopes they broke a lot of his bones.

“I’m not one to celebrate people being hurt but in this case I hope they broke a lot of bones.”

Corrective Services NSW said on Tuesday “a number of possible assailants” had been identified as being involved in the assault on Murphy.

“A 61-year-old inmate from Long Bay Correctional Complex has been transferred to hospital after he was allegedly assaulted around 10.20am today,” a statement said.

Five men who murdered Anita Cobby in 1986. From left: John Travers, Michael Murphy, Leslie Murphy, Gary Murphy and Michael Murdoch.

At the time of her death Ms Cobby was working as a registered nurse and had previously been announced as the winner of the Miss Western Sydney beauty pageant in 1979.

On February 2, 1986, Gary Murphy, then aged 28, his brothers Leslie and Michael, aged 22 and 33, along with Michael Murdoch, 19, and John Travers, 18, abducted Ms Cobby as she walked home from Blacktown train station. She had been walking along Newton Rd after getting off the train from the city, where she had had dinner with friends at Surry Hills.

The group forced Ms Cobby into their car and repeatedly raped her as they drove towards the then-semi rural area of Prospect.

Michael Murphy covers his face with his hands while with detectives at the scene.

They dragged her into a farm paddock where she was again raped, then savagely beaten and mutilated.

Her throat was cut and her body left abandoned in the field. A public outcry followed and arrests were soon made after the names of the men were given up as possible suspects.

At their trial, prosecutor Allan Saunders, QC, told a Supreme Court jury in 1987: “Anita Lorraine Cobby suffered two hours of sustained degradation, brutality and unbridled lust … She was then callously murdered.’’

Crowd surrounded Blacktown Police Station after the arrests.

Gary Murphy — who had famously wet his pants when police arrested him — along with his two brothers Michael and Lesley and fellow killers Michael Murdoch and John Travers were found guilty and their court file marked by a judge “never to be released’’.