What life is REALLY like for the depraved inmates of Australia's harshest prison – Goulburn SUPERMAX - Daily Mail - Candace Sutton - 5 August 2015
Goulburn's Supermax prison is the toughest in Australia
Serial murderers and vile rapists live side-by-side under maximum security
Secrets and quirks of the prison and notorious inmates are revealed in a new book
Rapist, Bilal Skaf, cried in his cell, but threw urine at an 'inferior' inmate
Gangster, Michael Kanaan, is so vain he wanted plastic surgery on his bullet scars
But inmates get have access to pizza, ice cream and chocolate
Pornography and other material also makes its way inside, despite security
By Candace Sutton for Daily Mail Australia - Published 5 August 2015
Gang rapist Bilal Skaf regularly sobbed in his cell, but also kept a collection of hardcore pornography, drew obscene sketches of his ex-girlfriend, and threw urine at a fellow women abuser, Robert Black Farmer, who he considered 'inferior'.
The Islamic terrorists who plotted to blow up Sydney also liked pornography, which was found on their computers in prison as they waited to be tried on charges of waging a holy war on Australian society.
Serial killer Ivan Milat would swallow any metal object he could so he would be sent to hospital, but was very particular about his coffee and his biscuits.
And throughout Supermax, the hell-hole prison that is filled with some of Australia's worst-ever offenders, inmates can order Streets Blue Ribbon ice-cream, Tim Tams, pizzas and popcorn.
Concrete walls, eight metre high razor wire and electric fencing line the yards inside Australia's highest-security prison Supermax, home to the nation's most depraved and ego-driven criminals
Mohammed Skaf (above) was just 17 when he joined his brother Bilal, then 18 in a gang of youths who raped and humiliated young Sydney women, earning him.
Bilal Skaf, now aged 33, is serving a 31 year sentence for gang rape and has been housed in both Goulburn's Supermax facility and the MPU, part of the Goulburn main prison
Unpopular: Mohammed Skaf (left) joined his brother Bilal (right) in a gang of youths who raped and humiliated young Sydney women. Bilal, now aged 33, is not popular in Goulburn prison, where he claimed he was a 'hero' to other Lebanese inmates who then threatened to kill the 'scum'
One of the cells in Supermax where Australia's worst killers spend 18 hours a day, only emerging to collect things they have bought like chocolate, Tim Tams and tobacco, and to interact with the worst of the worst
Fisatina Puafisi (pictured) is a mentally unstable inmate who has been known in Supermax to go off his medication and descend into madness with violent results" class="blkBorder img-share" />
Supermax serial killers: Backpacker murderer Ivan Milat (left) likes biscuits and black coffee as he serves multiple life sentences in Supermax. Fisatina Puafisi (right) is a mentally unstable inmate who has been known to descend into madness if he goes off his medication, with violent results
Author James Phelps has revealed some of the hidden secrets and quirks of Australia's highest-security prison in his new book Australia's Most Murderous Prison, RRP $34.99 by Random House Australia and is available from booksellers and online retailers, and as an eBook
In a new book, Australia's Most Murderous Prison - Behind the Walls of Goulburn Prison, author James Phelps reveals some of the individual quirks of inmates at the maximum security facility and its most notorious wing, Supermax.
Daily Mail Australia also uncovered information about the internal goings on of both prisons inside the walls of Goulburn, and the inmates.
Serial killer Lindsay Rose liked tending to the garden in the exercise yard but had to move because of terrible haemorrhoids that required medical treatment.
Central Coast rampage killer Malcolm Baker wears a tinfoil hat when he's outside in the yard because he believes it will stop aliens sending messages to his brain from the sky.
Gangster Michael Kanaan - who was depicted by Ryan Corr in the TV series Underbelly: The Golden Mile - is so vain he tried to get the scars he sustained in a police shoot-out removed by a world renowned surgeon - then tried to punch the doctor when he refused.
All these men have been inmates in Australia's toughest prison, the High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) prison known as Supermax where where the country's most notorious criminals are kept in sterile conditions and strict security.
Opened in 2001 inside Goulburn Correctional Centre, 195km south-west of Sydney, Supermax is also known as 'Harm U' or 'Supermosque' for its population of Islamic terrorist prisoners.
Among the 37 prisoners currently living there are the system's most dangerous and cunning inmates, who are considered likely to try to escape or to harm prison guards or other inmates.
The inmates include Brothers 4 Life gang leader Bassam Hamzy, his gang rival Farhad Qaumi, and Australia's most violent and unpredictable prisoner, Martin Toki.
Supermax has 171 surveillance cameras and inmates are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, inside their cold 3metre by 4metre cells. To further reduce risk of escape attempts are violence, inmates are shuffled between cells every few weeks and they and their food is regularly x-rayed.
Maximum security treats: Part of the buy-ups lost for inmates at the nation's most secure jail reveal that killers and rapists have access to Tim Tams, ice cream, pizza, pasta and other snacks.
Along with the breakfast cereals, chocolate and spaghetti, inmates can also purchase halal or other 'religious friendly' meals.
Maximum security treats: Part of list inmates can buy products from at the nation's most secure jail reveal that killers and rapists have access to Tim Tams, ice cream, pizza, pasta and other snacks.
A Supermax inmate (above) is moved while handcuffed from one cell to another, which happens every few weeks to keep prisoners guessing, and rare footage (right) of prisoners inside the complex
Visitors are frisked upon arrival and their irises scanned before entry. They go through the same process when exiting the prison.
Despite stringent controls to prevent contraband entering the prison, forbidden items do get in.
And rules aimed at controlling the criminals' behaviour cannot stop individuality flourishing, and inmates also have the right to indulge themselves in weekly 'buy-ups' - with little luxuries available like chocolate, ice cream, Tim Tams, pizza, pasta, dips and crackers, toiletries, tobacco and lollies.
Among some of Goulburn's most infamous inmates are:
Six time murderer Malcolm Baker (above) has gone crazy in Supermax and wears a tinfoil hat to stop 'aliens entering his brain'".
Malcolm Baker's antics were so antics infuriating to Supermax's most violent inmate Martin Toki (above, right) he thrashed him severely and Baker was rushed to a Sydney hospital" class.
Six time murderer Malcolm Baker (left) has gone crazy in Supermax and wears a tinfoil hat to stop 'aliens entering his brain', his antics infuriating Supermax's most violent inmate Martin Toki (right) who bashed him so severely Baker was rushed to a Sydney hospital
"Caught in the act: Gang rapist Bilal Skaf, pictured in the act of trying to smuggle letters out with his mother Baria (centre) is not liked in Goulburn prison where he has been attacked and threatened.
Caught in the act: Gang rapist Bilal Skaf, pictured in the act of trying to smuggle letters out with his mother Baria (centre) is not liked in Goulburn prison where he has been attacked and threatened
Skaf, believes he is superior to attempted murderer Robert Black Farmer, who Skaf spits at through a cage wall and at whom he throws milk cartons of his own urine.
Skaf, believes he is superior to attempted murderer Robert Black Farmer, who Skaf spits at through a cage wall and at whom he throws milk cartons of his own urine
Malcolm Baker. Mentally unstable six time murderer. Life sentence
Farhad Qaumi (above) went beserk in his prison cell in Goulburn jail, armed with a jail-made shiv, inciting his fellow inmates to join in as he attempted to flood his cell and threatened to kill prison officers
Malcolm Baker may have single handedly shot dead six people in a merciless rampage across three NSW communities, but in Supermax he is terrified of aliens and has been beaten by one of the most violent men in prison for his ravings.
Baker, who is now in his late 60s and has a Santa-like appearance, was a slight 45-year-old auto mechanic in 1992 when his much younger girlfriend decided to end their relationship.
He responded by taking a pump action shotgun to her house and killing Kerry Gannan, 23, then murder her seven months pregnant 18-year-old sister. He then shot the girls' father in the street and continued his rampage up the NSW coast, killing his own son and two others.
In Supermax, Baker has taken to fashioning his meal tray into a 'little space helmet' and pointing at the sky shouting 'you won't f***ing get me. You can't make me do nothing".
About two years ago, another inmate, Martin Toki, attacked Baker, stomping on his chest.
Toki, a huge Islander who has ripped a television off the wall and threatened a guard, and once took a female staff member hostage and threatened others with hot water, caused Baker such severe injuries the killer was rushed off to hospital in Sydney with broken ribs, cheekbones and nose.
After his return, Baker still makes tin hats from the meal trays, but is much quieter.
Gas mask at the ready, specially trained Immediate Action Team officers are prepared for any contingency at Supermax where inmates have lit or flooded cells
Milat has swallowed metal objects and chopped off a finger with a plastic knife, and staged one of his hunger strikes after the prisons commissioner confiscated a sandwich maker and television from his cell.
Milat wrote to his brother Bill that severing his finger had been 'a ridiculous thing to do', according to the text of a letter republished in James Phelps' book.
'But in here acts like that are regarded as normal and really not as severe as some,' Milat wrote.
'The prison controllers seem to think I need some punishment, so ... my main meal in a sealed pack is tipped out on a dinner plate, no means given to cut anything up.
Bilal Skaf (pictured, left) led a rape gang but in prison he sometimes wept in his cell and continued his reprehensible behaviour towards women.
Bilal Skaf (left) led a rape gang and his vile behaviour did not stop in prison, where he drew violent cartoons depicting the rape of women including his ex girlfriend (right), but guards say he also wept in his cell
Bilal Skaf is now 33 and has been locked up in the NSW prison system since 2000, the year he led a gang of 14 young Lebanese Australian men, including his younger brother Mohammed.
The Skaf gang raped and humiliated six girls aged 14 to 18 years, calling one of them an 'Aussie Pig' and asking her if 'Leb c**k tasted better than Aussie c**k'. His trial judge called him 'a liar, a bully, a coward' and 'callous and mean'.
Skaf was trouble in prison from early on. He was moved from Long Bay prison in Sydney to Goulburn after prison officers uncovered plans by fellow inmates to inject him with HIV-infected blood.
One of the five repulsive cartoons Skaf was discovered with in his cell at Supermax, where he was sent after inmates threatened him with an HIV infected syringe
Despite his outward bravado, Skaf often sobbed in his cell and once tried to commit suicide.
At Goulburn, he pleaded and begged to be taken out of segregation and placed in the 'Leb Yard', the caged pen which houses mostly inmates of Middle eastern origin.
'They love me,' he told officers, James Phelps reveals in his book, 'I'm their hero, I'm famous. They love what I did to those Aussie scum.'
But after receiving a tip-off that Skaf's life was in danger, they removed him from the pen and placed him in protection.
In the Multi Purpose Unit known as 'the Bronx' or 'baby Supermax', Skaf was discovered to have a stack of hardcore porn in his cell.
The extremely explicit magazines - which shocked officers who are used to some 'soft' porn entering the system - had somehow made their way through the mail screening system.
In March 2003, Skaf was charged with writing a threatening letter containing white powder to then Corrective Services Commissioner, Ron Woodham, with the message 'Don't take this as a threat but if all Muslims aren't released by January 2003 Australia and citizens will be in danger of bombing'.
In Supermax, while awaiting a court appearance for the letter incident, Skaf was discovered with drawings depicting sexual atrocities, including his ex-girlfriend being gang raped while one of the cartoon male fingers says, 'hurry up man there's 50 other waiting'.
In another of the vile cartoons, an armed soldier stands over a woman he has just shot multiple times and says 'Ya s**t'.
The woman depicted in these violent sketches had once been Skaf's loyal fiancée before she ended their relationship.
After she had cut off ties with Skaf, she was subjected to threatening phone calls and letters. She subsqeuently said of Skaf that he could 'rot in hell'.
Robert Black Farmer. Attempted murder. 24 year sentence. Farmer attacked and almost killed defenceless teenager Lauren Huxley, then set her alight. But in the prison yard where Farmer and Bilal Skaf exchange death threats, Farmer is a wimp who 'cries often'" class="blkBorder img-share" />
Robert Black Farmer attacked and almost killed defenceless teenager Lauren Huxley, then set her alight. But in the prison yard where Farmer and Bilal Skaf exchange death threats, Farmer is a wimp who 'cries often'
When he was alone with a defenceless girl, Robert Black Farmer was a brutal and sadistic attacker.
But in the yard at Goulburn, he cries regularly.
Farmer brutally bludgeoned the vivacious teenager Lauren Huxley at her northern Sydney home at Northmead in 2005
Drugs (pictured) seized after an attempt to smuggle them into Supermax inside prison papers
Intending to rape Ms Huxley, he attacked her with a fibro cutter and then set her prostrate form alight after dousing her with petrol. Ms Huxley survived, with severe facial injuries from which she has never fully recovered.
In prison - where the social pecking order makes murderers think they are superior to rapists and every crim thinks they are above paedophiles and child killers - Bilal Skaf decided Farmer was beneath him in status.
Australia's Most Murderous Prison reveals Skaf walked the fence between the two yards at Goulburn which separated him from Farmer, threatening to kill him and spitting in daily showdowns, to which Farmer would reply, 'F*** you Skaf. You are nothing but rapist scum'.
The prison officers knew both men's weaknesses. Farmer had wet himself on one occasion' and the officers said Skaf would urinate into a milk carton and then hurl it at Farmer through the wire fence.
Farmer was a weakling who would 'always mouth off first, but then he will cry like a baby when we put it back on him'.
Michael Kanaan. Triple murderer and highly dangerous prisoner. Three life sentences.
Vain gangster: Michael has lost some hair since he was imprisoned for three 1998 murders, but that has not diminished the vanity of the killer, who tried to get plastic surgery on his scars and who works out constantly in the Supermax yard.
Kanaan (played by Ryan Corr, second from left in the Underbelly series) is a manipulative prisoner who guards never take lightly and he is destined to remain in Supermax for the rest of his life
Michael Kanaan is regarded as one of the most dangerously manipulative inmates in Australia and as he will never be released.
But the Supermax prisoner does have his foibles - and one of them is vanity. He tried to get plastic surgery to correct the scars he sustained during a police shoot-out.
Kanaan is serving three life sentences plus 50 years for the drive-by shooting murders of two footballers outside the Five dock Hotel in Sydney's inner west in 1992, and the murder of another man over a gun three months later.
An inmate under surveillance in Supermax where the cameras are always watching
But he is linked to seven shootings in the same year, including the assassination of DKs Boys gang leader Danny Karam who was shot 16 times by his own gang members, the shooting of 14-year-old only child Edward Lee, who was on his way to a birthday party on Telopea Street, Lakemba in Sydney's west.
Kanaan's reign as a gunman came to a head in December 1998, when he and two armed cohorts on their way to kill Kings Cross drug enforcer 'Tongan Sam' got caught in a gunfight with police and was shot in the legs and buttocks.
Kanaan claimed to be a paraplegic after his arrest, appearing in court in a wheelchair, but in Supermax he had a miraculous recovery after his trial finished.
In Supermax, where he had been because prison authorities regarded him as a dangerous manipulator, James Phelps reveals that the prison officers watched as Kanaan 'just stood up and walked', pushing his wheelchair away.
He now spends his prison life as a 'fitness fanatic', working out in the yard, doing chin-ups, dips, sit-ups and push-ups and occasionally using his strength to throw a few guards around the facility.
But at one point he wanted to get rid of ugly scars caused by the police shoot out and convinced someone he should be taken to see a leading plastic surgeon for their removal.
When the doctor told Kanaan nothing could be done about the scars, Australia's Most Murderous Prison recounts, the killer exploded and had to be restrained by the officers who took him to the surgery.
Kanaan, who had his own money to pay for the expensive surgery and has access to cash through his multiple criminal connections on the outside, 'is fine until he gets the wrong answer - and that's when he snaps'.
They plotted to blow up Sydney but now convicted terrorists Mohamed Ali Elomar (left) and Moustafa Cheikho (right) spend their time in Supermax where Elomar - who is uncle of the Sydney man who went to Syria an died, Mohamed Elomar - is said to be preaching to recruits
Khaled Chiekho was the ringleader of the nine-man terrorist cell that planned to attack a Sydney target, in which was Australia's first real taste of Islamic home-grown terrorism which sent the men to trial in 2008 and resulted in sentences of up to 28 years.
Investigators for Operation Pendennis found on the computers of these pious Islamic state jihadists evidence of pornography which some of the men had accessed.
Since being in prison, Mohamed Ali Elomar has reportedly become the 'puppet master' of would-be recruits to the latest Islamic cause, ISIS.
Elomar is the uncle of Mohamed Elomar, the Sydney man who went to Syria and fought for ISIS alongside Khaled Sharrouf, a fellow Pendennis plotter with his uncle. Both Sharrouf and the younger Elomar are believed to have been killed in Iraq
The Australian has revealed that Elomar senior is preaching from his Supermax cell to young Australians intersted in the creation of an Islamic state, with one official saying about Elomar and one of his Penedennis cohorts, Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 'Jail has not decreased their influence'.
Lindsay Rose. Serial killer. Five life sentences
Five time killer Lindsay Rose who used to tend the prison's garden at Supermax and work out in the yard, but he had to move to another prison to have his severe haemorrhoids treated.
Lindsay Robert Rose used to tend the small garden in the yard inside Supermax, where the highly intelligent and manipulative inmate had been placed after allegedly plotting to murder a staff member and escape from Long Bay prison.
Rose is a serial killer serving five life sentences for murders including the stabbing death of his former girlfriend Kerry Pang. In prison, Rose was known to produce jail made keys.
Australia's Most Murderous Prison reveals that Rose was transferred from Supermax because of a serious case of haemorrhoids, which required treating somewhere other than the high security jail.
Mark Van Krevel. Mutilation murderer. Two life sentences
Mark Van Krevel (above) committed two gruesome mutilation murders.
After being placed in a Supermax cell Mark Van Krevel stacked on weight (above) on the prison diet supplemented by ice cream and pizza.
Mark Van Krevel (left) committed two gruesome murders and after being placed in a Supermax cell stacked on weight (right) on the prison diet supplemented by ice cream and pizza.
The prison cells in Supermax (above) only have a fireproof mattress over the moulded concrete bed base, but inmates do receive creature comforts such as toasters, coffee makers and access to chocolate, nuts and chips
Mark Van Krevel was convicted in 2000 of the gruesome murders of two men, David O'Hearn and Frank Arkell, in Wollongon south of Sydney, and became the youngest inmate to receive double life sentences.
Van Krevel was just 21 years old when he smashed the head of O'Hearn in his home with a wine decanter, then decapitated him and placed the head in the kitchen sink. Then he partially disembowelled O'Hearn, cut off his hand and used the hand to draw satanic pictures on the living room walls
Next, he smashed in the head of former Wollongong mayor, Arkell, with a bedside lamp, wrapped the electric cord around his neck and stuck tie pins in his eyes.
In Supermax, Van Krevel stacked on weight, turning him from a relatively small man into an obese prisoner.
He has also spent long periods of time away from Supermax under psychiatric care.
Vester Fernando. Double murderer. Life
Vester Fernando (pictured), who murdered a young nurse, has been involved in prison riots and murdered his cousin in jail, so when officers found a large knife in his cell there was cause for concern.
Ring leader: Vester Fernando came under the influence in Supermax of Bassam Hamzy (left)) the Brothers 4 Life gang leader who converts inmates to Islam and runs a business organising crime on the outside. A gang poster (right) was found in his cell
Vester Fernando, who with his cousin Brendan raped and murdered 21-year-old nurse Sandra Hoare after abducting her on duty at Walgett Hospital, in northern NSW, was to kill again in prison, forcing authorities ot place him in Supermax.
Murderer Ronald Priestly was in the prison art room at Lithgow when Vester stabbed Brendan to death, and ended up alongside his mate in Supermax for organising prison riots and assaults on officers.
After Vester murdered Brendan and was shanghaied to Supermax where, for a time, he became a Muslim convert under the influence of Australia's most dangerous prisoner, Bassam Hamzy.
Hamzy, who resides in Supermax under the highest security AA rating, runs business from his Supermax cell organising crime and payments and manipulating followers of the Brothers 4 Life gang.
Nine-year-old schoolgirl Ebony Simpson was murdered in the Southern Highlands town of Bargo in NSW in 1992, after her family had moved there for the safe country environment.
Nine-year-old schoolgirl Ebony Simpson was murdered in the Southern Highlands town of Bargo in NSW in 1992, after her family had moved there for the safe country environment.
Andrew Garforth joined the searchers looking for Ebony Simpson after he murdered the little girl, eating the food provided by the Simpson family's supporters, before his arrest. In prison he is a whinger who was beaten by other inmates.
Andrew Garforth murdered nine-year-old schoolgirl Ebony Simpson in Bargo, in southern New South Wales in 1992 and received a life sentence which he is serving in Goulburn main prison.
But Garforth is known as a whinger and whiner in prison and was belted by ping pong bats in a wing at Goulburn
An aerial view of Goulburn prison, which opened in 1884, showing the middle semi-circular building which sits on the infamous Circle surrounded by caged yards of inmates who sleep in the long building of tiered wings, and Supermax, which lies in the top right corner of the photograph.
With 171 surveillance cameras put in place, inmates are monitored 24 hours, seven days a week.
The infamous Circle - also known as 'human zoo' - where Australia's worst murderers and rapists spend their days before being locked up in 150-year-old prison wings such as Unit 4 (at the rear of the photo). Infamous criminal Bertie Kidd can be seen carrying the milk crate (right).
The caged yards on the Circle at Goulburn Main prison can be seen in the centre of the photo between the two diagonally aligned prison wings, and house around 30 inmates each in racially segregated yards of Middle Eastern, Aboriginal and Asian inmates, as well as killers and rapists together.
Aerial of hell: The caged yards on the Circle at Goulburn Main prison can be seen in the centre of the photo between the two diagonally aligned prison wings, and house around 30 inmates each in racially segregated yards of Middle Eastern, Aboriginal and Asian inmates, as well as killers and rapists together.
Prison officials prepare for a tour of the grim series of prison yards at Goulburn known as the Circle which comprise caged areas crammed with the most serious killers in the country who spend around seven hours a day in the tension filled atmosphere of enclosed pens.
Matthew De Gruchy, photographed in prison where he is serving 28 years for murdering his mother and two siblings, was one of six inmates involved in a brutal jail attack on the notorious K gang rapists in 2 Yard on the Circle of Goulburn Main, which left the brothers with a broken arm and a brain injury.
Serial killer Ivan Milat and violent prisoner Thomas Hudson Wilson conspired together in Goulburn's MPU wing to escape, resulting in Milat swallowing metal objects in an effort to be taken out to a hospital from which he could flee.
Thomas Hudson Wilson, served 14 years for breaking a woman's face, arms and leg with a pinch bar for money, and was caught because of a medical condition which means he is totally hairless and easily recogniseable.
Unholy alliance: Serial killer Ivan Milat (left) conspired to escape from Goulburn jail with Thomas Hudson Wilson (right), who was captured for breaking a woman's face, arms and leg with a pinch bar after his total lack of body hair made him easily identified by the victim who a judge said 'would never recover from her injuries.
A ban on possessing drones in or at a prison, as well as operating or using one up to 400 feet above an adult or juvenile jail will be introduced later this year (Goulburn Correctional Centre).
Entrance to hell: The main gate to Goulburn Correctional Centre wherein lies several facilities including the Supermax prison and Goulburn Main, the feared older part of the prison which has caged yards on what is known as the Circle, where inmates risk stabbings and fatal assaults.
Jail made weapons, known as shivs, seized from cells in prisons including Goulburn Main, have been fashioned from brushes, pieces of metal or plastic and given tape of cloth handles for use in the prison yards to threaten, maim or kill.
Jail made weapons, known as shivs, seized from cells in prisons including Goulburn Main, have been fashioned from brushes, pieces of metal or plastic and given tape of cloth handles for use in the prison yards to threaten, maim or kill.
Execution style murderer Leith Marchant (above), who converted to Islam under the influence of Bassam Hamzy in Goulburn jail, main) sleeps on bare concrete in his cell, and has hatched elaborate escape plans.
Supermax special: Execution style murderer Leith Marchant (above), who converted to Islam under the influence of Bassam Hamzy in Goulburn jail, sleeps on bare concrete in his cell, and has hatched elaborate escape plans.
Australia's toughest jail: Goulburn prison, which is a two hour drive south-west of Sydney, has the greatest concentration of Australia's worst criminals housed together in 150-year-old cells
Australia's Most Murderous Prison - Behind the Walls of Goulburn Prison by James Phelps is published by Random House Australia and is available for $34.99 from booksellers and online retailers, and as an eBook.