Gary Murphy, 61, was attacked in the shower block at Long Bay Jail in Sydney
The widower of murdered nurse Anita Cobby has celebrated the news one of her killers, Gary Murphy, was brutally bashed by fellow inmates on Tuesday.
John Cobby said he wanted to thank the inmates involved in the attack, and hopes Murphy broke a lot of bones.
‘I’d like to know who they are so I can buy them a bottle of Champagne,’ Mr Cobby told the Daily Telegraph, following news that Murphy is now fighting for life.
‘I’m not one to celebrate people being hurt but in this case I hope they broke a lot of bones.’
The widower was equally rejoiceful earlier this year when Murphy’s brother, Michael, died in the same jail after a battle with liver cancer.
‘I hope it was painful for him. One down, four to go,’ he said at the time.
Gary Murphy, 61, is now in a critical condition at St Vincent’s Hospital, after he was savagely beaten by inmates in the prison showers of Long Bay Jail.
Murphy, along with his brothers Michael and Leslie Murphy, and John Travers and Michael Murdoch, were all jailed for life over the murder of 26-year-old Ms Cobby in 1986.
Michael Murphy died in Long Bay jail in February.
The murder of Ms Cobby shocked Australia after her body was found in a paddock at Prospect in western Sydney.
She had been kidnapped while walking from Blacktown railway station and pack raped. Having been dragged through barbed wire into a paddock, her throat was slit with a knife.
Michael Murphy, one of the brothers who murdered Anita Cobby in 1986 is fighting for life after being bashed in Long Bay jail, according to Corrective Services NSW
Ms Cobby was kidnapped while walking from Blacktown railway station, pack raped and murdered
Gary Murphy’s brother Leslie (pictured) is serving life for Anita Cobby’s murder
‘A 61-year-old inmate from Long Bay Correctional Complex has been transferred to hospital after he was allegedly assaulted around 10.20am today,’ Corrective Services NSW said in a statement.
‘The incident occurred in 10 wing of area 1 at the Metropolitan Special Programs Centre. A number of possible assailants have been identified.
‘Corrective Services NSW is assisting NSW Police with their investigations.’
The Metropolitan Special Programs Centre is currently home to inmates including Michael Guider, the serial paedophile who in 1986 killed nine-year-old schoolgirl Samantha Kinght.
On the night Ms Cobby was abducted, Travers, Murdoch and the Murphy brothers stole a car and got drunk at Doonside.
They then drove to Windsor looking to buy drugs. Michael Murphy later said the group needed money for petrol and they saw Ms Cobby walking down the road.
‘We were just going to grab her handbag until John (Travers) said, ‘Let’s take her with us’,’ Gary Murphy claimed.
Gary Murphy (far right) returns to the spot where Anita Cobby’s body was found in the Reen Road paddock. The killer is pictured with marks on his face caused during his capture the previous night
Gary Murphy points out to detectives Graham Rosetta (left with hands on hips) and Tony Waters (right) the direction in which he and his four accomplices dragged Anita Cobby through the Reen Road paddock
What followed was a sickening sequence of physical and sexual assaults.
Ms Cobby was raped, punched and kicked repeatedly in the car and had a knife held to her throat to stop her screaming.
The group stopped to put petrol before driving to Reen Road at Prospect where the onetime beauty queen was dragged through a barbed wire fence into a paddock and raped again.
Travers cut her throat as Ms Cobby fought to stay alive. Her body was discovered naked and face down, with her eyes still open, in the field two days later.
The five killers were arrested about three weeks after the attack and their capture brought calls for the reintroduction of the death penalty.
Gary Murphy wet himself when he was taken into custody.
Angry crowds congregated outside the Blacktown Police Station when news broke of the arrest of the five men who raped and murdered Anita Cobby. This images was taken on 24 February 1986, almost three weeks after the nurse was killed
Gary, then 28, along with his brothers Michael, 33, Leslie, 22, as well as Murdoch, 19, and Travers, 18 – were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in jail.
When Gary’s brother Michael (pictured) died of cancer Ms Cobby’s widower John Cobby was delighted. ‘I hope it was painful for him’
The confession of Travers, considered the ringleader of the group, was secretly recorded.
‘We were all drunk and she f***ing seen all of us. So I just cut her,’ Travers said.
In sentencing the killers Justice Alan Maxwell said: ‘This was a calculated killing done in cold blood.’
If any person were ever to consider granting them parole, ‘The Executive should grant the same degree of mercy they bestowed on Anita Lorraine Cobby in Mr Reen’s boiler paddock on the night of 2 February 1986.’
When Gary’s brother Michael died of cancer Ms Cobby’s widower John Cobby was delighted.
‘I hope it was painful for him,’ he told The Daily Telegraph. ‘One down, four to go.’
Michael Murphy had been in an out of hospital and had been asked shortly before his death if he would apologise to Ms Cobby’s family.
‘Why would I f**king apologise to anyone while you b******s leave me in this f**king [hospital] room and treat me like this?’ he barked.
Gary Murphy was assaulted at about 10.20am on Tuesday in 10 wing of area 1 at the Metropolitan Special Programs Centre at the Long Bay prison complex (pictured)