A 79-year-old murderer has revealed why he bashed his cellmate to death with a Breville sandwich press.
John Walsh said he wanted his fellow Long Bay prison inmate Frank Townsend, 71, ‘gotten rid of’, a Sydney court heard on Friday.
Walsh, who was serving life in prison for three murders at the time of the attack, stuffed the sandwich press into a pillowcase, swinging it at Townsend’s head at least eight times in a ‘very violent and ferocious attack’.
Walsh pleaded guilty to murdering his Long Bay prison inmate Frank Townsend in January of 2017 but the court could find no psychiatric explanation for the attack – and that he is ‘just bad’.
John Walsh (pictured), 79, who is serving life in prison for four murders, including his fellow inmate, said he wanted his cellmate ‘gotten rid of’ so he killed him with a sandwich press
Walsh (centre) pleaded guilty to murdering his Long Bay prison inmate Frank Townsend in January of 2017 but the court could find no psychiatric explanation for the attack
Crown Prosecutor Sharon Harris told the NSW Supreme Court on Friday: ‘Some people are just bad, the offender himself refers to himself as a dangerous person or implies he is a dangerous person,’ the Daily Telegraph reported.
According to the publication, prison officers interrupted Walsh’s beating when they heard five or six thuds but when they saw that Walsh was seated on his bed, they assumed the noises had been Townsend’s snoring.
When the officers left, Walsh struck the ‘defenceless’ Townsend a further two times to the head.
John Walsh is currently serving two life sentences for murdering his wife, two grandchildren and family dog before turning an axe on his daughter in a sudden attack at their home in Cowra, west of Sydney, in 2008.
He was also convicted of the attempted murder of his daughter, policewoman Shelly Walsh.
John Walsh stuffed the sandwich press into a pillowcase, swinging it at his 71-year-old cellmate’s head at least eight times in a ‘very violent and ferocious attack’ (stock image)
John Walsh is serving two life sentences for murdering his wife, two grandchildren and family dog before turning an axe on his daughter in a sudden attack at their home in Cowra (pictured)
Walsh, who is originally from Northern Ireland, was babysitting his daughter’s children as she worked an overnight shift at Parkes police station
Walsh, who is originally from Northern Ireland, was babysitting his daughter’s children as she worked an overnight shift at Parkes police station.
He later told police he hit his wife in the head repeatedly with a hammer he nicknamed ‘Fred’ before stabbing her and beating her again.
He then lured his granddaughter to the bathtub where he drowned her before placing her back in her bed.
After Walsh said he turned his attention to his grandson who he beat in the head with a hammer before placing him in the bathtub.
He put the young boy back on his bed when he was sure he was dead.
Walsh told police he then worried about who was going to take care of the dog so he drowned it in the bathtub as well, wrapped it in plastic and placed it under the children’s bunk bed, according to The Telegraph.
When his daughter Shelly later returned home to pick up her children, Walsh was waiting with an axe and hit her several times in the head, fracturing her skull and tearing her brain lining.
Shelly told a court heard during Walsh’s trial in 2009 she first saw her mother lying on her bedroom floor when she arrived at the home, but was told by Walsh she was sick.
Shelly then entered her children’s bedrooms where she found their bodies tucked into bed. Moments later Walsh hit her on the head with an axe.
While attacking her, Walsh told his daughter ‘I am doing this because I love you. When I am done with you lot I am going to Newcastle to kill your ex-husband. We are all better off this way. This is the way it has to be’.
Walsh is serving life in Long Bay prison (pictured) for four murders, including his fellow inmate