Convicted murderer Ricky McNamara confesses to stabbing crime boss Bassam Hamzy in prison exercise yard

They are two of the most closely watched inmates inside the state’s toughest prison. But no one expected animosity between the pair, just days before Christmas 2023.

Incarcerated crime boss Bassam Hamzy was stabbed with a homemade shiv in a prison exercise yard after guards failed to properly search an ultra-violent inmate before placing the two men together, a court has heard.

Convicted murderer Ricky McNamara, who once tried to cut a sex offender’s head off in jail, will face sentencing in later this year after pleading guilty to a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm over the incident, which occurred in the high risk management unit at Goulburn Supermax just days before Christmas in 2023.

Hamzy, the Brothers 4 Life gang founder who has been behind bars for decades, escaped serious injury but refused to be interviewed by police.

McNamara initially denied responsibility and told officers he was never there, despite the incident being caught on camera.

However, he changed his tune in May this year after striking a plea deal with prosecutors that saw them withdraw more serious charges of affray and using an offensive weapon with intent, in exchange for a guilty plea on the assault charge.

Bassam Hamzy pictured inside Goulburn jail in May 2017.

Hamzy pictured in a police mugshot from 2011.

According to an agreed statement of facts tendered to Goulburn District Court, McNamara and Hamzy were both handcuffed and searched inside their respective cells before they were escorted to a secure exercise yard just before 8.30am on the morning of December 21, 2023.

Both men were placed in the yard, however McNamara was the first to put his hands through the access hole to have his handcuffs removed.

The court heard officers removed the left cuff, allowing McNamara to put his hand in his pocket and pull out a small shiv as they unfastened the cuff from his right hand.

Once both hands were free, McNamara immediately turned on Hamzy, whose hands were still bound, and began thrusting the weapon at his upper chest and head.

Hamzy raised his hands in front of his face to block the knife and the the two men each “assumed a fighting stance”.

Hamzy has been in custody, largely at Goulburn Supermax, for more than two decades. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

He is housed inside the high risk management unit, reserved for the most violent of offenders. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Court documents state the fight lasted for about a minute and 40 seconds, with Hamzy sustaining a cut on the face during the melee.

Both men eventually separated when staff deployed gas into the yard through the access hole.

Officers entered the yard and secured the two men.

Police later attended the prison and seized clothing from the pair.

The jail yard fight is nothing new for either Hamzy or McNamara, who in recent years have both made headlines for brawls behind bars.

Hamzy infamously went toe-to-toe with Talal Alameddine, a convicted terrorist and the younger brother of underworld kingpin Rafat Alameddine, in an identical exercise yard at Goulburn Supermax in 2019.

During that incident Hamzy received extensive wounds to his face after being repeatedly punched by the younger Talal.

Hamzy is no stranger to jail brawls, having been involved in a violent melee with fellow prisoner Talal Alameddine (left) in 2019. Source: 9 News

McNamara, who is serving time for murder, was not known to have any issues with Hamzy before the incident, but is known to have a history of fashioning shivs to attack other inmates, including an attempted beheading of a sex pest in Long Bay jail in 2022.

In that attack, McNamara used two makeshift blades to try and cut the throat of the convicted sex offender, before throwing the blades on the roof of the yard and casually walking off.

“I attacked him, choked him and tried to cut his head off,” McNamara later told a guard.

“He was talking about his crimes in the yard, about kids … and I won’t stand for that.”

For that attack McNamara was transferred from Long Bay to Goulburn Supermax.