Sterling Mervyn Free, 26, is accused of kidnapping a girl, 7, from a Brisbane Kmart and sexually assaulting her in nearby
The father-of-two accused of kidnapping a seven-year-old girl from Kmart and sexually assaulting her in bushland is being kept at ‘Australia’s nastiest prison’.
Sterling Mervyn Free, 26, has been refused bail on charges of kidnapping and indecent treatment of a child under 12.
Free is locked up at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre in Brisbane’s west, with his lawyer confirming he will soon apply for bail.
The notorious high security facility is where child killer Brett Peter Cowan and others have awaited trial while accused of shocking crimes.
An ABC investigation published in June claimed the prison was ‘overcrowded, increasingly violent and unsafe’, citing ex-prisoners and staff past and present.
Two-time Arthur Gorrie convict Kevin Davenport told the national broadcaster it was ‘one of the nastiest’ prisons he had been in, recounting how he witnessed a brutal dinnertime bashing.
‘I have been having dinner and I have seen someone get sliced from the back of their ear to the front of their jaw and bleed in front of you and there is nothing you can do,’ Mr Davenport claimed.
Labelled Australia’s ‘nastiest jail’: Prisoner-on-prisoner assaults tripled from 122 in 2013 to 472 in 2016 at Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre
Cowan, loathed for the 2003 rape and murder of schoolboy Daniel Morcombe, was a ‘bash on sight’ target for vigilantes at the jail, former inmates have previously claimed.
He had reason to worry. While in custody – at a separate centre – he was scarred for life when a prisoner poured boiling water over his face and torso.
Former inmate: Brett Peter Cowan spent time at the correctional facility. He was gruesomely assaulted at a nearby jail years later
At Arthur Gorrie, prisoner-on-prisoner assaults tripled from 122 in 2013 to 472 in 2016, a report by the Queensland Corrective Services chief inspector said.
The number of serious assaults jumped from 11 to 64 over that same period, which coincided with inmates being ‘doubled up’ in cells in 2013, but the chief inspector said a ‘causal link had not been ascertained’.
A former staffer told the ABC the jail was ‘drastically overcrowded’ and described it as a ‘violent place’.
The company that operates the prison, GEO Group Australia, declined to comment on the ABC’s report.
Former prison governor John Heffernan told Daily Mail Australia earlier that Free would have entered custody with a reputation which put him among the ‘lowest of the low’.
An artist’s representation of how Brett Cowan looked after being doused with boiling water in jail in an attack that left him with gruesome burns
‘What he’s allegedly done is about as low as it gets,’ Mr Heffernan said.
‘Any child molestation or anything like that, you’ve got a target on your back, straight away. As soon as you go into jail you’ve got a very big target on your back.
‘And you’re very, very lucky if you can get through your time without somebody trying to make a name for themselves or trying to square up and initiate inmate justice.
‘Inmate justice can be swift and very cruel and very efficient.’
Police allege Free took the girl to nearby bushland where he is accused of sexually assaulting her. Pictured is a stretch of land near where the alleged assault is believed to have occurred
Sterling Free was arrested last Monday and charged with allegedly taking a child for immoral purposes, deprivation of liberty and indecent treatment of a child under 12
The seven-year-old girl was allegedly snatched from the toy aisle of a Kmart store at Westfield North Lakes, north of Brisbane. Daily Mail Australia visited the store on Wednesday (pictured)
Free, 26, is alleged to have kidnapped the seven-year-old while she shopped with her mother at a Kmart store in Westfield North Lakes, north of Brisbane, on Saturday afternoon.
He is accused of driving the girl to bushland at nearby Pumicestone Passage and sexually assaulting her before returning her to the store.
Free was arrested last Monday and charged with taking a child for immoral purposes, deprivation of liberty and indecent treatment of a child under 12.
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