Eggs and Bacon Bay murderer Stuart Russell wages prison victimisation battle

An Eggs and Bacon Bay murderer is now waging a discrimination battle against Risdon Prison – claiming he was put in a cage yard with boiling water, urine, marmalade and honey thrown at him.

The Eggs and Bacon Bay house where Brett Edward Williams’ body was found.

An Eggs and Bacon Bay murderer who killed a blind pensioner is now waging a discrimination battle against Risdon Prison – claiming he was victimised and put in a locked cage yard with boiling water, urine, marmalade and honey slurry thrown at him.

Stuart Barry Russell, now in his 50s, is serving a maximum 22-year jail term for fatally stabbing his landlord, Brett Williams, to the heart in 2011, then attempting to burn his body.

According to a 2018 coronial finding, as Mr Williams lay dying, Russell and two others did nothing to help him – but instead held a “vigil” next to the victim’s body with a candle and some incense, and shared a bottle of wine.

Russell later played a song on his guitar as part of the “memorial service” before making an attempt to set fire to the corpse.

After a decade behind bars, Russell has lodged a complaint with Equal Opportunity Tasmania against prison guards and fellow Risdon prisoners, according to a newly-published Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal decision.

Russell claimed from May 2019 to January 2021, he was subjected to a range of behaviours including being threatened and cornered by correctional staff, and threats by other prisoners that he would be raped “to death”.

Russell claimed he was bullied for being “crippled”, with inmates or guards asking to see his toes, as he had none, or kicking or stomping the stumps of his feet.

He also claimed he didn’t have a shower chair or other medical aids, which he needed, and that he’d been expected to “get in the cage” – including an occasion where he’d had boiling water, urine, marmalade and honey thrown at him.

A 2010 photo of Stuart Russell.

Russell has been representing himself during the case, without a lawyer.

Tribunal deputy president Alison Clues said the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner had accepted the entire complaint, however there was a 12-month time limit for discrimination and prohibited conduct complaints.

She said the Commissioner failed to make a determination on whether it was reasonable to accept that part of the complaint, and also said they’d failed to afford procedural fairness to the Tasmanian Prison Service by inviting submissions on the matter.

Ms Clues said because the decision to accept that part of the complaint was invalid, the Commissioner was unable to refer the matter on to the tribunal.

She said the tribunal could only hear the part of the complaint that was within time – between January 2020 and January 2021.

A hearing date is yet to be set.

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