“As the victim turned her head to the right to address another inmate,the offender reached out and took part of the victim’s hair in her hand and pulled,causing an amount of hair to be pulled from the roots,” the agreed facts state.
Camilleri later told police,“I don’t like[the victim and another guard] so I just wanted to give them a little bit of the taste of their own medicine”.
She said she had pulled “a little bit” of hair out,and asked if it was “just a few strands”.
An amount of hair fell out when the guard took off her scrunchie.
The second incident,in October 2021,occurred when Camilleri was in the prison yard and refused to put her hands through a hatch to be handcuffed.
As the guard entered the yard,Camilleri “reached out and took a handful of the victim’s hair in her left hand and pulled”.
“The victim screamed something like,‘Ah,she’s got my hair’,” the facts state. “The offender did not let go of the hair until she was restrained.”
When the second guard took out her hair pins,hair fell out. She was left with two bald patches.
Each of the guards,in victim impact statements,described the pain as “excruciating” and said they now suffer post-traumatic stress disorder. The judge noted one guard said her hair “has not grown back completely”.
Huggett said it seemed both assaults “occurred spontaneously and relatively quickly,in circumstances[when] the offender was asked to do something she appeared to be resisting”.
She said it was accepted Camilleri “may have perceived she was being tortured[in the unit] and was going to die there”,but it was not suggested she was provoked by either victim.
The court heard Camilleri met the diagnosis for autism spectrum disorder,obsessive compulsive disorder,PTSD and an intellectual disability.
Huggett said Camilleri “has been abandoned by her remaining family and has been teased and taunted by other inmates following extensive publicity relating to her mother’s passing”.
“At this stage,she presents as having no supports in the community,given her significant support was her mother,” the judge said.
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Camilleri was found not guilty of murdering her mother by reason of mental illness but guilty of manslaughter. She successfully appealed against the sentence imposed of 21 years and seven months with a non-parole period of 16 years and two months,and it was reduced.
Huggett said Camilleri’s complex mental health concerns made findings regarding her prospects of rehabilitation and reoffending “difficult to reliably make”.
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