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Convicted killer in savage attack on inmate

Convicted killer Antoine Anderson was sentenced today for attacking another prisoner inside Westgate. (Photo by Glenn Tucker)

A convicted murderer has been given an extra seven years on top of his life sentence for brutally attacking another prisoner inside Westgate.Antoine Anderson, 35, left victim Roger Winston Darrell, 53, with serious injuries after Anderson repeatedly stamped on his head during an argument.It was the latest episode in what a judge called an “atrocious history of violence” on Anderson’s part, which includes convictions for torture and pulling a man’s tooth out with pliers.He was serving a minimum 15-year sentence for shooting Aquil Richardson dead on Boxing Day 2007 when he launched the attack inside Westgate on August 22, 2011.Crown counsel Garrett Byrne told Supreme Court on Friday that the prison attack was caught on CCTV. The victim was on remand in relation to an alleged dishonesty offence, but housed in the maximum security wing when the assault took place.Mr Byrne said trouble flared when the pair got into an argument just before breakfast was served. Anderson punched Mr Darrell in the face and hit his head against a wall, causing him to slide to the floor. He then knocked him unconscious and kicked him in the head.Anderson walked away before returning to kick Mr Darrell in the head again, and then stamped on his head several times. The victim was left with a broken eye socket, broken nose, eight fractured teeth, extensive bruising to his face and head, and memory loss.According to Mr Byrne, the victim was left unable to remember why he was in prison in the first place.Defence lawyer Gabrielle Stewart told the sentencing hearing yesterday that there was a “strong possibility” the incident would not have occurred if Mr Darrell had not been housed with prisoners serving life sentences. She said remand prisoners should be housed separately, and the victim was partly to blame by provoking Anderson.Anderson pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Darrell causing grievous bodily harm. He told the court: “Although he provoked me and made threatening gestures, I would like to apologise to his family, the courts and Westgate for entertaining his stupidity.”Imposing a seven-year sentence for the assault to run consecutive to the murder sentence, Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves said: “The sentences by these courts for violent offences such as these within the prison precincts must, in my opinion, possess and convey a strong element of deterrence to would-be offenders.”He noted Anderson had an “atrocious history of violence”. He was convicted in February 2006 for grievous bodily harm to Dwayne Trott in what the judge described as “the infamous torture case”.Mr Trott was burned, beaten, chopped with a machete and had his stomach repeatedly stamped upon by a group of men including Anderson. Anderson suggested the victim should be killed and dumped in a landfill site. He was back in court in September 2009, when he pleaded guilty to a grievous bodily harm charge against another victim.“The facts were that he extracted a tooth of the victim with pliers,” recalled Mr Justice Greaves. “Despite all that, he was paroled before Christmas 2007 in time to commit the murder of Aquil Richardson on December 26, 2007.”Anderson was sentenced for that killing in February, 2009, having been convicted by a jury.The trial heard Anderson was the getaway rider in the crime, while his brother-in-law Philip Bradshaw carried out the execution-style killing in Southampton. No motive was ever put to the jury by prosecutors, but questions were raised over whether it was due to gang rivalry between ‘town’ and ‘country’ factions.Anderson would have become eligible for parole in the murder case in February 2024, which is 15 years after his sentence date. However, Mr Justice Greaves ordered that he must now serve at least half of his seven-year sentence for grievous bodily harm after that. He will now become eligible for parole in August 2027.Mr Richardson’s mother, Shahidah Abdur-Rahim, said of the news: “I am glad that he has gotten himself in trouble. I was looking forward to something like this. I think the time he was given [for murder] was not enough.”She said Anderson, who used to be friends with her son before the murder, had never apologised for it.“I’m not surprised [this happened]. I’ve been hearing a lot of stuff about him. He’s a nobody who wanted to be somebody,” she said.

No room in remand unit

Roger Winston Darrell, who was beaten so badly that he could not remember why he was in Westgate, was housed with convicted killers because there was no room in the remand unit.Mr Darrell, 53, was remanded in custody for an alleged dishonesty offence, but was put in Westgate’s maximum security wing, where he was brutally attacked by Antoine Anderson.Prisons Commissioner Edward Lamb said people on remand are sometimes housed in other Westgate units due to space constraints.“This was the case with Mr Darrell, he said. “Whenever we allocate inmates to a particular unit however, we give due consideration to risk.”He declined to divulge any further particulars relating to the case, but said that there is a “very low” number of assaults within Westgate by inmates on inmates.