A convicted paedophile fighting against extra jail time should have a "sickening" attack that cost him an eye taken into account, a court has heard.
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More details have also emerged about how prison authorities reacted to the brutal assault, which occurred when a detainee from the general population came into contact with strictly protected prisoner, Ian Harold King, 69.
The former first-grade Queensland cricketer was sentenced to 12 years jail for sexually abusing young boys in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Crown - led by prosecutor Margaret Jones - is fighting in the ACT Court of Appeal for a heavier sentence, arguing the trial judge, Justice Richard Refshauge, erred in his calculations.
But King's lawyer - barrister Ken Archer - has argued against more jail time, saying the sentence was appropriate, and did not show "undue leniency".
Mr Archer said that if the court upheld the appeal, and decided to re-sentence the convicted paedophile, they must take into account a "sickening" prison attack in which King's eye spilled onto the floor.
That attack occurred when King, a prisoner under strict protection, was allowed to come into contact with a mainstream prisoner.
King lost his eye and requires reconstructive surgery as a result of injuries suffered in the attack.
The court heard from Alexander Maconochie Centre operations manager Gordon James Collins about how the attack occurred, and what had been done to ensure it did not occur again.
Mr Collins said measures were now in place to ensure that prisoners under strict protection did not come into contact with the general prison population.
He said a fence had been put up around a remand cottage where strict protection prisoners were housed.
The AMC has also moved an extra guard to escort strict protection detainees as they moved around the prison.
Before that, some strict protection inmates were able to move around the prison unescorted.
Mr Collins told the court that staffing problems meant the prison had been forced to lockdown parts of the prison.
Mr Archer suggested that prisoners under strict protection, who required extra resources to look after, would be more likely to be locked in their cells in the case of staffing shortages.
Mr Archer argued that this, accompanied by King's poor health, advanced age and lack of access to education and programs in the jail, made a custodial sentence more difficult.
He also argued that King's extremely difficult and violent upbringing in Queensland had left him "very much a delusional person" with a "profoundly broken personality".
Mr Archer said he now had a bizarre articulation between sexual identity and sports performance.
He said King's mental illness and significant social disadvantage should be taken into account.
The court has reserved its decision.