Loveridge bragged of king-hitting rival Rebels bikie in Silverwater jail
The Sydney man jailed for a one-punch attack that killed teenager Thomas Kelly has been sentenced for bashing a fellow prison inmate, after bragging he’d started ‘kinging’ the rival bikie.
Police & Courts
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A one-punch killer has copped more jail time for bashing a NSW inmate, after he bragged to a friend he’d walked up to the rival bikie and started “kinging him.”
Kieran Loveridge was imprisoned for the notorious fatal coward punch attack that killed 18-year-old Thomas Kelly outside a Sydney nightclub in 2012.
On Friday Loveridge was sentenced to one extra year of jail after swinging blows again, this time at fellow Silverwater prisoner and Penrith Rebels President Matthew Rymer.
A judge raised “considerable concern” about authorities placing feuding bikie gang members together, and Loveridge claimed the guards “stitched me up” as punishment for his alleged sexual relationship with then-prison officer Jody Marson.
Parramatta District Court heard that Loveridge told a psychologist he suspected the guards were targeting him “for me to get my karma” over the scandal that lost Marson her job.
“I honestly believe that this happened to me because they still believed that I had an affair with an officer in 2015,” he said.
Judge Robert Sutherland SC questioned why Loveridge, who is a Lone Wolf bikie, was put into the same area as 14 members of the gang’s “sworn enemies” and not into segregation.
“How did Loveridge come to be placed, contrary to specific alerts given for him, in a pod occupied by members of an outlaw motorcycle gang? This question is concerning,” he said.
Loveridge pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, for which he received a 25 per cent sentence reduction.
The 26-year-old, who had a long beard, tattoos on his hand and a large watch, appeared in court via video link from Shortland jail.
Judge Sutherland said the jail yard scrap on February 26, 2018, was sparked by a management error “which ought never to have occurred.”
“Whether it occurred through malice or recklessness… the court is not in a position to determine with certainty,” he said.
The judge said Loveridge confronted Rymer, then 34, who was sitting on a milk crate whilst talking on the phone, and unleashed “a flurry of punches to the head.”
“The two men grabbed hold of each other and fell to the floor, where they continued wrestling and fighting with each other,” Judge Sutherland said.
Loveridge was manhandled away first, while Rymer resumed his telephone conversation, and only after completing the call did he run after his assailant and attack him as retribution.
Once guards separated the pair Rymer was taken to the jail’s clinic to get stitches in his eyebrow.
One officer who broke up the fight told prosecutors that Silverwater “is a Rebels jail” and those bikies are at war with Lone Wolf members, but the guard claimed to be unaware of Loveridge’s association with the gang.
That’s despite alerts on his record dating back to 2012 and Loverige’s claims he told authorities that day he had “drama” with the Rebels and couldn’t mix with them.
“They put me in the pod with the Rebels, the dogs,” Loveridge told his mother during a recorded phone call at the time.
“What a set up.”
Loveridge, who was already serving a minimum 10-year term, now won’t be eligible for parole until June 2023.
The court heard Loveridge has been involved in a number of assaults during his eight years behind bars, and was sentenced for breaking another inmate’s jaw in 2015.
Judge Sutherland said Loveridge’s boasting to a mate that he’d started “kinging” Rymer was “nothing more and nothing less than braggadocio.”
The court heard Loveridge later admitted he’d panicked before attacking Rymer, who was considerably larger than him, but said: “I couldn’t show my true feelings to the boys.”
Loveridge told a psychologist he wanted to act "like a man” and felt he had to get in front of his enemies or they were going to jump him.
Loveridge was found guilty of Mr Kelly’s manslaughter after randomly striking the 18-year-old as he walked along Victoria Street, Kings Cross, on July 7, 2012.
Mr Kelly was on a night out with friends when he was knocked to the ground and he died from head injuries in St Vincent’s Hospital two days later.
“Mr Loveridge assaulted four other members of the public during his alcohol-fueled rampage,” Judge Sutherland said.
Mr Kelly’s death prompted a campaign to tackle alcohol-related violence and a strict crackdown on Sydney’s nightlife.
Loveridge had his initial maximum sentence of seven years and two months raised to 13 years and eight months following a Crown appeal in 2014.
