Prisoner of War gang member Rodney Phillips cops extra jail time for bad behaviour in Barwon

Notorious Prisoner of War gang member Rodney Phillips — who once tried to firebomb the home of Carl Williams’ ex-wife Roberta — will languish longer in jail for staff assault and arsons.

Notorious Prisoner of War gang member Rodney Phillips has been given more jail time for staff assault and arsons.

Phillips was close to the end of his maximum prison term over the shooting of a policeman when he was sentenced to another stretch this month.

The 31-year-old – a disciple of jailhouse strongman Matthew Charles Johnson – is regarded as one of the highest-risk inmates in the state’s corrections system.

He was given 30 days for assaulting an emergency services worker on duty, a charge which related to an attack on an officer at maximum security Barwon Prison.

Phillips was handed a 120-day term for one count of criminal damage by fire and 60 for another.

Rodney Phillips is one of Victoria’s highest-risk inmates. Picture: Supplied

Phillips was a disciple of Matthew Johnson. Picture: Supplied

A magistrate ruled that 83 days of his total 240-day penalty be served concurrently with matters on which he was already detained.

Orders totalling almost $60,000 were made against Phillips on the three charges.

In July, 2015, Phillips and his mate Sam Liszczak launched a terror campaign against the family of drug boss Carl Williams.

The pair, who had been out of jail for a matter of days, tried to firebomb the houses of Williams’ ex-wife Roberta and his father George but got the wrong properties.

Two days later, police officer Ben Ashmole was shot in the head as he and a colleague followed a stolen four-wheel-drive carrying Phillips and Liszczak into a dead-end street in Moonee Ponds.

The Herald Sun later revealed Roberta Williams had received death threats from Johnson, the founder of the POW gang.

Those threats were designed to get her to say her former husband had plotted to kill Johnson.

This was to assist him in mounting an appeal based on self-defence in the Carl Williams murder.

Roberta Williams. Picture: Ian Currie

Carl Williams. Picture: Supplied .

Sam Liszczak also terrorised the family of Carl Williams. Picture: Supplied

Johnson used an exercise bike’s stem to fatally bludgeon Williams inside the Acacia unit of Barwon on April 19, 2010.

It is suspected the killing was ordered by powerful crime bosses concerned Williams was co-operating with police.

In 2017, Phillips’ mother Leonie Stuart was shot five times as she investigated a noise outside her Glenroy home.

One theory was that the attack was motivated by Ms Stuart giving evidence against her son at his committal hearing over the shooting of Mr Ashmole, who has since quit the force.

A $350,000 reward remains in place over the ambush on Ms Stuart.