Alleged terrorist may be PARALYSED after stand-off with prison officers at Goulburn supermax prison

An accused terrorist could be paralysed after being injured during a stand-off with prison officers at a maximum-security jail. 

Tukiterangi Lawrence, 24, was ‘hit in the neck’ at Goulburn’s Supermax prison south-west of Sydney as jail staff tried to subdue him and other inmates, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Corrective Services officers are understood to have fired a gas canister at him following a disagreement over ‘prayer times’. 

Lawrence, who allegedly has links to Islamic State sympathisers, was accused in February of plotting attacks on police from his jail cell at the notorious prison.

The 24-year-old complained he couldn’t feel his legs after being hit in the neck with a door or a shield, according to a prison source.

The source said Lawrence could need as much as four months of rehabilitation and is now waiting to see whether his injury requires a wheelchair. 

The altercation is believed to have been sparked when the inmates refused to go back to their cells.

Officers from the High Risk Security Management Unit and Goulburn’s Special Operation Group were called in to deal with the stand-off. 

Lawrence was arrested in his cell in February and charged with two counts of preparing or planning terrorist acts.

An investigation began in late 2018 into a number of people alleged to be engaging in terrorism-related activities.

 Pictured: Tukiterangi Lawrence. Corrective Services officers are understood to have fired a gas canister at him following a disagreement over prayer times

Supermax, within the Goulburn Correctional Centre (above), is Australia’s most secure jail. Larence was charged in February with plotting terrorist attacks from his jail cell at the notorious prison

Lawrence was allegedly found to be an associate of these people.

Following their investigation, Lawrence was placed on an interim continuing detention order, and evidence discovered by police was given to counter terrorism police.  

Police searched his cell, where he was imprisoned for unrelated crimes, in October 2019 and allegedly found evidence of planning for terrorist attacks.