Josiah Binsaris, 19, jailed for assault on Holtze prison guard

FORMER Don Dale escapee Josiah Binsaris punched a prison guard in the head when he was told he would lose his TV and his right to purchase snacks.

Josiah Binsaris has had his jail term extended after assaulting a prison guard. Picture digitally altered.

FORMER Don Dale escapee Josiah Binsaris punched a prison guard in the head when he was told he would lose his TV and his right to purchase snacks.

Binsaris, 19, yesterday pleaded guilty at Darwin Local Court to assaulting prison guard Nicholas Chalkley at Holtze, where he has been serving time since he turned 18.

Josiah Binsaris. Picture: NT Police

Binsaris’s lawyer, Marty Aust, told the court his client had launched legal action over subsequent “extremely violent action” by eight members of the elite Immediate Action Team, in the moments after the assault.

Binsaris appeared in court with special security measures, having long been marked as an escape risk.

The court heard Binsaris’s victim visited the teenager’s maximum security cell to tell him he was being placed on an “intensive management” scheme, which Mr Aust said would see him with “no access to any luxuries whatsoever”.

Binsaris said to Mr Chalkley, “well that’s bullsh*t”.

Mr Chalkley said, “It might be bullsh*t but it’s the way it is now”.

Binsaris then punched Mr Chalkley in the back of the head when he turned his back to leave the cell, before pushing him into a railing.

Josiah Binsaris’s 2017.

A nearby officer took Binsaris to the ground and waited for the Immediate Action Team to arrive.

Prosecutor Kylie Benson said Mr Chalkley was suffered bruising and swelling, and had to be cleared to return to work by a doctor.

Binsaris was serving five years and six months jail stemming from an April 2017 escape from Don Dale, followed by a three day crime spree up and down the Stuart Hwy.

Holtze prison. Picture: Daniel Hartley-Allen

The jailhouse assault on Mr Chalkley was the first entry on Binsaris’s adult criminal record.

Judge Elizabeth Morris said Mr Chalkley was just doing his job and inmates had no right to attack them.

“Prison officers … are there to do a job,” she said.

“They need to be protected by the law and by the courts.”

Ms Morris said Binsaris’s background was “not an enviable one” and he had been diagnosed with profound foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

Ms Morris extended Binsaris’s existing jail term by four months and his non-parole period by two months.