A Canberra detainee poured scalding water over a fellow inmate's head and hit him with a can in a sock, later complaining the attack was because the unit was sick of the man "standing-over" them.
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But prison intelligence suggested the attacker had been asserting himself as the "leader" of the unit and attempting to bolster support from the other detainees.
The assault happened on May 23 this year and was reviewed by the Inspector of Correctional Services in a report tabled in parliament this week, providing a rare insight into detainee disputes.
Surveillance footage had showed the detainee waiting at the top of the stairs for the victim before fetching a kettle and the weapon from his cell.
After the attack the detainee victim - an Indigenous man - had blood across his face and was shouting that he was burning.
Corrections officers offered him a container of water which he poured over his head, some of which entered his mouth.
The prisoner spat out the bloody water and some of it hit one of the corrections officers in the face and eye.
He was treated for blisters and burns and a 4 centimetre abrasion on his head at hospital.
The attacker claimed the victim had been "standing-over the unit detainees for too long and they were sick of it".
But prison intelligence from March and April suggested the assailant had been asserting himself as the “leader” of the unit and attempting to bolster support from other detainees.
Inspector of correctional services Neil McAllister's review said the reason for the assault was unclear - but there was no intelligence to suggest there were issues between the two detainees before the attack.
The review made one recommendation - that corrective services review its policies and procedures so that where an Indigenous detainee is sick or hurt, an Indigenous person notify their next of kin.
He said this was in line with a recommendation from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
The review also made several findings, including that given their history and prison experience it was reasonable the two men were accommodated in the same unit.
Both were properly classified as medium security, he found.
Since they were accommodated in the AMC - the assailant in January 2018 and the victim in June 2015 - both had been cited in multiple incidents.
Mr McAllister's review also found there were no prison failings that contributed to the assault and that no prison intelligence suggested the detainee was at risk of attack from the other.
