Judge says jail assault sentencing ‘complicated’

A Lara man serving a jail sentence for murder has appeared in court for his role in a vicious beating of a prison officer.

Sigiragh Baea. Picture: Jason Edwards

A Lara man serving a jail sentence for murder has appeared in court for viciously beating a prison officer and will have to wait six weeks to be sentenced.

Sigiragh Baea, 29, injured a female prison officer for no reason last year in an attack described as “unfathomable”. The assault left the officer in a wheelchair for six weeks.

Late last month, Baea pleaded guilty in the County Court to intentionally causing injury and assaulting a custodial officer on duty at Barwon Prison.

Baea appeared via video link in the County Court on Monday for a further plea hearing where Judge Mark Gamble decided to adjourn sentencing until December.

During the plea hearing, crown prosecutor Holly Baxter told the court the incident should be considered a prison offence, however, this was refuted by Baea’s lawyer, Bethany East.

Ms East told the court her client pleaded guilty to the offences under the crimes act, which carries different penalties to the corrections act.

Judge Gamble said this was “clearly a complicated sentencing exercise” and adjourned sentencing until December.

On February 15 last year, Baea – who is in jail for murdering Prasad Prasad Somawansa with a kitchen knife in 2016 – asked to be let out of his cell.

When the female prison officer let him out, Baea unleashed his assault.

A male prison officer at the scene, who saw the assault and alerted his colleagues, was pushed into a railing by Baea, and the two began to tussle.

Baea then swung with a clenched fist and hit the female officer, knocking her out.

Baea was then arrested by other officers.

In a victim impact statement read out in court last month, the female officer said she had felt the emotional impact of the attack every single day.

“It is a dark cloud that feels like dread and heaviness is always close by,” she said.

The female officer was in a wheelchair for six weeks as a result of an ankle fracture and also needed specialised therapy for a ruptured tendon in her hand.

She was also diagnosed with PTSD and suffered nerve damage.

Baea will next appear in court on December 18.

Originally published as Judge says jail assault sentencing ‘complicated’