A Canberra prisoner choked his cellmate with a pair of handcuffs before breaking the neck of a guard trying to stop the attack, prosecutors told a jury on Tuesday.
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Early on January 15 last year the intercom in cell 10 in the Alexander Maconochie Centre's remand unit 2 was activated.
What followed, prosecutor Anthony Williamson told the court, was the "episode of extremely violent behaviour" committed by the 27-year-old accused prisoner, who cannot be named.
Mr Williamson said that after the intercom was activated a correctional officer went to the cell and looked through the hatch.
When the officer asked the pair what was going on, the accused said they’d knocked the intercom by accident.
The court heard that while the other man was distracted, the alleged victim whispered to the officer through the hatch, “Miss, you’ve got to get me out of here.”
The officer told the court she saw the accused and believed the normally placid and quiet detainee, who was at the time under protection, was “off his head” on drugs.
She radioed for help to get the alleged victim out of the cell. When more officers arrived they directed the accused to put his hands through the hatch to handcuff him.
But they were only able to get one side around his right hand before he “violently” pulled away, it's alleged.
Prosecutors contend the man attacked his cellmate, punching his head and using the handcuffs to choke him around the neck.
When correctional officers entered the cell, it's alleged the man punched one and banged another's head on a table.
When the man had been secured, the first officer called to the cell said she saw her colleague sitting on the floor of the cell slumped forward, with blood on his face.
“The blood was pouring out of him,” she told the court.
She said the cells were “not the cleanest places in the world”. She tried to get the officer to lean his head back to stop the flow of blood but the officer couldn’t because of his neck, she said.
Mr Williamson told the jury on Tuesday that the base of the officer’s skull was fractured, a vertebrae in his neck was fractured, and his nasal bone was broken into a number of pieces.
The officer needed surgery, and suffered nerve damage and drooping around his face. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and was yet to return to work, the prosecutor said.
Mr Williamson told the jury that the accused was a fit, strong, man, while the alleged prisoner victim was in his 50s and more frail.
He said even if the man was affected by drugs at the time, he still knew what was going on and the danger of his actions.
The man has pleaded not guilty to recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, causing actual bodily harm, assault and threatening to kill.
The trial continues.
