Brutal murderer Matej Vanko sues corrections over ‘sexual ridicule and bullying’

A notorious murderer says his treatment in the aftermath of last year’s prison riot ‘left him feeling like a tortured animal’.

Police at the Howard Springs crime scene where Matej Vanko murdered Donald Stevens.

NOTORIOUS murderer Matej Vanko is suing the NT Government for assault and false imprisonment after his treatment in the aftermath of last year’s prison riot allegedly “left him feeling like a tortured animal, vulnerable, unsafe and distressed”.

In documents filed with the Supreme Court, the convicted killer also claims an incident in which guards left him handcuffed and naked in full view of other prisoners left him subject to harassment regarding the “size of his genitalia” and “sexual ridicule and bullying”.

Vanko was serving a life sentence for the “cold, calculated and callus” murder of 53-year-old Donald Stevens in 2012 when he allegedly participated in the riot on May 13.

Vanko claims in the court documents he was injured by CS gas after climbing onto the roof of the prison where he was unable to breathe and “felt as though he was going to die”

After he began to comply with an order to climb down, a guard allegedly again sprayed Vanko with the gas, “directly on his face”, again causing him to fear for his life and he ran away.

Matej Vanko was jailed for life for the “cold, calculated and callus” murder of 53-year-old Donald Stevens in 2012.

After being assured he would not be sprayed again, Vanko says he climbed down and was restrained in an “at-risk” cell, allegedly causing him pain, trauma, anxiety and humiliation.

The guards allegedly then cut and ripped his clothes off, causing “an abrasion and friction burn to his perineum and scrotum where his clothes had been pulled through between his legs and ripped from underneath him”.

Vanko claims he was then held in solitary confinement for 24 hours a day for the next three weeks and only allowed out for 15 minutes a day for the next three months.

“For at least the first month (Vanko) was denied any cutlery and was forced to eat meals in his cell with his hands,” the documents allege.

Police at the Howard Springs crime scene where Matej Vanko murdered Donald Stevens.

“For at least the first three months, (he) was unable to consume his breakfast in his cell in the mornings each day as his breakfast was delivered but taken off him by correctional officers before he could consume it.

“For approximately three months, (he) was not provided any fresh water to drink and had to consume shower water when he was having his daily three minute showers.”

Then on June 6, after being restrained for banging on his cell door “in protest of his conditions”, guards again allegedly cut Vanko’s clothes off and left him standing naked outside his cell in full view of other prisoners and guards, one of whom filmed him in the nude.

Vanko claims in the court documents the incident left him feeling “humiliated” and “like a captured animal”.

The murder weapon Matej Vanko used to kill Donald Stevens.

“The plaintiff suffered and continues to suffer harassment from other prisoners regarding his body and size of his genitalia and has been the subject of sexual ridicule and bullying,” they read.

Vanko was then later flown to Alice Springs prison where he allegedly remains in solitary confinement and he is forced to “eat meals, defecate, urinate and shower in his cell”.

Vanko claims in the documents his treatment was designed to “punish” him for the riot and with an “intention to hurt and humiliate” him and an intentional or reckless disregard for his fundamental human rights.

He says the guards conduct involved “malice, violence, cruelty and degrading treatment”.

In a defence filed with the court, the government broadly denies the substance of all the allegations involving any mistreatment of Vanko by prison guards, saying their actions were reasonable, necessary and within the law.

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