Australia’s worst-ever paedophile will likely spend the next 30 years within a secure unit inside one of Queensland’s most notorious jails to keep him safe from the wider prison population – but even that might not be enough to protect him from future attacks.
Ashley Paul Griffith, 46, is currently holed up in the sectioned off S3 unit within Wolston Correctional Centre, south of Brisbane.
Griffith, who was sentenced sentenced to life in prison with a non parole period of 27 years in Brisbane District Court last Friday for the most unimaginable crimes committed against young girls over two decades, has already spent a year in the unit on remand.
It is home to some of Australia’s most depraved murderers, rapists and paedophiles.
Notable prisoners include Leonard Fraser, the ‘Rockhampton Rapist’, who died in 2007, and Robert Paul Long, who started the Childers Palace Backpackers Hostel fire in 2000 which killed 15 people.
Brett Peter Cowan, the notorious killer of schoolboy Daniel Morcombe who he murdered on the Sunshine Coast in 2003, is also housed in the unit.
But the cloistered walls of unit S3 does not mean the high-profile criminals are completely immune to jailhouse justice.
Last year, both Cowan and Griffith were targeted in a ‘jail napalm’ attack, leaving the latter requiring hospital treatment.
Ashley Paul Griffith (pictured), 46, is currently holed up in the sectioned off S3 unit within Wolston Correctional Centre, south of Brisbane
Griffith, who was sentenced sentenced to life in prison with a non parole period of 27 years in Brisbane District Court on Friday for the most unimaginable crimes committed, has already spent a year in the S3 unit within Wolston Correctional Centre (pictured) while on remand
Another inmate mixed a scalding cocktail of jam and boiling water before throwing it over the pair of paedophiles.
The jam causes the sugar to raise the boiling temperature and creates a super-hot slime that sticks to the skin, maximising the pain and injury.
Wolston Correctional Centre is home to around 925 prisoners.
The attack occurred just days after Griffith was publicly identified as the childcare worker charged with over 300 child abuse charges, including rape.
‘It is no secret that Griffith will be a target for as long as he lives,’ a corrective services source told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Some prisoners will see attacking him as a prize to elevate their own status among other inmates, even if it means lengthening their own sentence.’
‘Of course, prison guards will be supremely vigilant but Wolston is severely overcrowded and they don’t have eyes on the back of their heads, as last years napalm attack proved.’
If Cowan’s experience is anything to go by, then Griffith will have an awful time.
Last year, both child killer Brett Peter Cowan (pictured) and Griffith were targeted in a ‘jail napalm’ attack, leaving the latter requiring hospital treatment
Cowan has been targeted on at least four occasions over the years. In 2016, Adam Paul Davidson, then 31, snuck up behind him while he was playing cards and poured boiling water over his head.
The killer was left writhing in agony, screaming ‘why?’ over and over again with skin peeling from his face and shoulders.
When asked about the scalding, Davidson later told police: ‘I didn’t want to kill him or nothing, I just wanted to hurt him… just wanted him to feel the pain.’
‘Feel the pain somebody like Daniel Morcombe has felt.’
In 2018, Cowan was stabbed with a makeshift knife in the neck but the attacker did not draw blood.
That same year inmates started a riot as a distraction so that they could hurl heated-up condiments at Cowan but their plot was foiled by the guards.
He is said to now live in a constant state of fear.
Ashley Paul Griffith, 46 was sentenced sentenced to life in prison with a non parole period of 27 years in Brisbane District Court last week
Griffith’s imprisonment is not cheap, either.
The cost of incarceration to the taxpayer is $147,900 per prisoner per year, according to a report published by the Institute of Public Affairs last year.
That means that if Griffith spends 30 years in prison, he will cost the taxpayer over $4.4 million.
It comes as multiple people have been calling for Griffith not to be given special treatment within prison over fears for his safety.
Last year, Liberal National Party Senator Matt Canavan told Daily Mail Australia it was time for a discussion about the death penalty.
‘Life imprisonment seems too soft a penalty for a crime this heinous,’ Mr Canavan said.
‘We really should consider the death penalty for people this that have ruined so many other lives.
‘I was just absolutely shocked at the vileness and evilness of this conduct and also just the scale of it and how this happened over so many years to so many people and why wasn’t it stopped.
‘There has to be a proper inquiry here about how information was shared, why this couldn’t have been stopped earlier and how can we make sure that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again.
‘I mean, surely we don’t have a penalty on the books strong enough for this heinous individual.’
He added: ‘This is so bad there has to be in my mind something even stronger than life imprisonment.’
Griffith’s crimes include 28 counts of rape, 190 counts of indecent treatment of children, 67 counts of making child exploitation material and15 counts of maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child.
He also still faces prosecutions in Italy and NSW where he worked at various childcare centres.
Wolston Correctional Centre is also home to Massimo ‘Max’ Sica, the Italian triple murderer who slaughtered his ex-girlfriend and her two siblings in 2003 and Rick Thorburn, who has tried to take his life at least three times after being convicted of murdering 12-year-old schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer.
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