Devontae Ulutui: Man jailed over brutal cell ambush at Port Phillip Prison

After he was stabbed seven times in the head and back during a brutal ambush, an inmate at Port Phillip Prison managed to call a guard for help.

An inmate at a maximum-security prison in Melbourne’s west used the intercom system to call for help after he was brutally ambushed in his cell in a “premeditated” attack, a court has heard.

CCTV footage from the prison captured Devontae Ulutui, 23, entering cell 390 at Port Phillip Prison in Truganina at 7.04pm on January 21, 2020.

There he waited for his victim to return at 7.09pm.

Just two minutes later, the footage showed Ulutui leave the cell, depositing a ripped green prison uniform in a neighbouring cell before walking away.

His victim managed to use an intercom to call the officers station, telling a corrections officer: “boss I’ve been stabbed”.

Responding personnel found the man standing in the middle of his cell with blood pouring from his head and back.

He was rushed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital where doctors treated seven puncture wounds to his head, chest, arm and back.

Port Phillip Prison.

Ulutui returned to the Sunshine Magistrate’s Court for sentencing on Tuesday after pleading guilty to aggravated unlawful assault over the attack.

The court heard the weapon used wasn’t located and the victim had refused to co-operate with the investigation or provide a statement.

Magistrate Amina Bhai said despite the lack of a victim impact statement the impact of the attack on the inmate was “obvious”.

“This offending was planned and premeditated to a degree,” she said. “You made a deliberate act to enter the cell and commit the offence.”

She said while Ulutui was still a young man, he had accumulated a “significant history” of offending.

He was handed a four-month term of imprisonment over the attack.