A Canberra detainee who set fire to his court cell with a cigarette lighter he stashed in his buttocks told officers who strip searched him: "What goes in the safe, stays in the safe."
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Footage shows Rhys Liam Brown, 26, fishing the cigarette lighter out of his pants and dancing beneath the Civic court complex before he held the lighter to the padded walls and later scorched the screen of a CCTV camera.
Brown pleaded guilty to arson and property damage. He was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court to one year and eight months imprisonment last month.
Court documents said he was agitated and had to be removed from a Sentence Administration Board hearing for a parole breach in late November 2012.
He had warned Corrective Services officers: "If I get remanded, shit will happen."
When the board later revoked his parole, Brown jumped to his feet and said, "OK let's get on with it. Take me downstairs."
He then screamed: "You putrid dogs. Nothing but dogs. Let's go c---."
Brown tried to get away but was restrained by officers, kicking the door from it's hinges and headbutting the lift walls as he was escorted to a cell.
Staff saw him pull a packet of tobacco from his groin area before he began to yell and scream as he paced up and down.
He pulled out a cigarette lighter he had "secreted in his rectum", court documents said, and refused to hand it over to staff.
Brown then stood on a bench and held the lighter to the ceiling for a couple of minutes.
He watched the flame grow before he tried to set fire to the padded door of the cell.
Corrective Services officers told him to get out of the cell as they tried to put out the flames.
They weren't able to retrieve the lighter. Brown was put in a different cell.
Footage showed he paced and danced before he stood on a bench, again pulled out the lighter and held it to the CCTV camera, scorching the screen.
Officers again rushed into the cell with a fire extinguisher.
As they walked him out for a strip search, Brown took the lighter from the front of his pants and stashed it in his buttocks.
"I have other stuff up my ass[sic], and once it's up there no-one can get to it," he told officers.
He was taken to the Alexander Maconochie Centre.
Brown later told police in an interview he had "f---ing flipped out" as he was dragged from the courtroom and "started stressing and s---".
He couldn't remember the arson offences because he was in "another zone".
In sentencing Brown, Acting Chief Justice Hilary Penfold noted the case had been delayed because he fled to Queensland after he was charged and had to be extradited to the ACT last year.
She said his threats at the parole hearing, and his decision to hide the cigarette lighter, showed it was possible he planned the incident.
But he also might have just wanted access to a lighter if he was released, she said.
The judge said it was "no particular consolation" the fire did not spread quickly given the wall material could have released noxious gases that endangered other staff and detainees.
The court heard Brown had a lengthy criminal history but had accepted responsibility for his actions and understood he needed to work on his "decision-making approach".
Brown yelled and swore at police as he was led away from the court in handcuffs after his sentence was handed down.
He will be eligible for release on October 15.
