Murder accused Owen Fuller has pleaded guilty to stabbing an inmate four times in the face with a pen and sending an ominous Facebook message to a former girlfriend.
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The 20-year-old pleaded guilty in Wagga Local Court on Wednesday to recklessly wounding convicted murderer and former Tarcutta man Jouni Risto ‘John’ Ahola in the South Coast Correctional Centre on March 4.
Fuller also pleaded guilty to intimidating a former girlfriend on April 5 by getting a mate outside jail to send her an ominous Facebook message.
But he denies seriously assaulting a man at Young on October 21, 2013, bashing a different man at Young on November 1 and assaulting a third man in company at Yass on November 25.
Those charges have been adjourned to the Young and Yass Local Courts.
Fuller is yet to plead to a charge of murdering 33-year-old Young man Corey Power, who was found bashed beyond recognition in Wombat Street about 5.10am on August 29, 2013.
Police facts tendered to the court said Fuller went into Ahola’s cell for five minutes.
A corrections officer checking cells two minutes later found Ahola wiping blood from his face.
“The swelling will go down, I just need to stop the blood flow,” Ahola told the guard.
Treatment in the jail’s medical clinic revealed four superficial stab wounds to Ahola’s forehead, a laceration above the right eye, a laceration to the side of the left eye and a long graze to the right thigh.
Questioned about the attack by guards, Fuller’s hands were spattered with blue ink, and his shirt had a small amount of blood on it.
When asked why he had been attacked, Ahola said he did not know.
“Maybe I gave him one cigarette instead of two,” Ahola said.
Fuller told police he stabbed Ahola because Ahola called him a dog.
Fuller will be sentenced for the jail assault and intimidation of the woman on November 25.
Fuller’s murder charge has been adjourned to the same date.
The court was told that at least two of the four people accused of being accessories after the fact of Mr Power’s murder would make representations to the Crown.
The process of making the representations and getting a reply will take 12 weeks to November 25, magistrate Erin Kennedy was told.
The case of Nathan Blundell, accused also of murdering Mr Power as well as being an accessory before the fact, was also adjourned to November 25.
