Barwon Prison: Wave of bashings by prisoners, understaffing making conditions dangerous

Notorious murderers and violent thugs are among those charged over the brutal bashings on prison guards at Victoria’s most secure jail.

Three convicted murderers are among the prisoners who have been charged with assaulting guards at Barwon Prison during a recent spate of violence.

A wave of staff bashings last month at Barwon Prison – the state’s most secure jail – came after a number of other attacks last year in which prison officers were injured after being set upon.

Love Machine drive-by killer Jacob Elliott, good Samaritan murderer Jonathon Sporton and the man jailed over the fatal stabbing of Laa Chol are among those facing the charge of assaulting an emergency services worker while on duty.

Jacob Elliott was charged with the murder of two people in a drive-by shooting outside Prahran nightclub Love Machine. Picture: Genevieve Alison

Other dangerous offenders locked up for crimes of violence are facing the same charge.

The man who killed Ms Chol at a CBD apartment in 2018 is believed to have been charged over one of the attacks which happened at the start of last month.

He cannot be named for legal reasons.

Two of his associates who are convicted of home invasions and street robberies have also been charged over staff assaults.

Elliott is due to appear in court in July on his assault emergency services worker charge.

He is serving a minimum 29-year prison term over the drive-by shooting murders in April, 2019, of crowd controller Aaron Osmani and patron Richard Arow outside the Love Machine nightclub in Prahran.

Sporton stabbed Roger Bertocci to death at Altona North in December, 2014.

Mr Bertocci had pulled over to intervene in a fight between Sporton and his girlfriend.

Some corrections sources have said understaffing is making Barwon a more dangerous place to work because it causes more lockdown periods, which feed prisoner disenchantment.

The moment father and son crime duo Jared Pihlgren, 53, and Jay Stephens, 23, launched a vicious assault on an innocent stranger on Lonsdale St, Melbourne, on December 17, 2021.

Instances of inmate-on-inmate violence at Barwon remain under police investigation.

The Herald Sun recently revealed detectives had been called in after two inmates suffered stab wounds fighting each other.

One of the pair was Jay Stephens, a man with a sickening history of street offending, including bashing senior police officer Chris O’Neill in 2019.

CCTV footage emerged last week of Stephens and his father, Jared Pihlgren, carrying out a brutal and cowardly attack on a man in the city.

Pihlgren is believed to have been looking on as Stephens and his foe fought it out at Barwon last month, a stoush that left both combatants in hospital.

Stephens has pleaded guilty to affray and intentionally causing injury, admitting it was him who started the fight on Lonsdale St about 12.30am on December 17, 2021.

Pihlgren has plead guilty to intentionally causing serious injury, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years jail.