Carl Williams bashed to death in jail

Gangland killer Carl Williams has been bashed to death allegedly by a fellow inmate
at a maximum security prison while a prison guard was just 10 metres away.
Williams suffered serious head injuries after he was struck several times with the
stem of an exercise bike at about 12.50pm (AEST) on Monday.
The man who ordered some of Melbourne's most brutal underworld killings was sitting
at a table when he was hit from behind in an exercise facility in the Acacia Unit of
the high-security Barwon Prison, west of Melbourne.
"One of the other inmates has walked up behind Carl and struck him to the head a
number of times with a heavy instrument," Homicide squad detective Bernie Edwards
told reporters.
"We have viewed CCTV footage and it appears the stem of an exercise bike has been
used during the assault."
Corrections Minister Bob Cameron said Williams was housed in a unit with two other
inmates, both of whom are being questioned by homicide detectives.
The three men were allowed to associate with each other for six hours a day, between
8am and 2pm, but were not always supervised.
Deputy corrections commissioner Rod Wise said there was one particular person who
was of "special interest" to police.
"Mr Williams had spent 15 months in association with that particular prisoner and
another prisoner had spent nine months with him and Mr Williams was happy with those
arrangements."
A prison officer was about 10 metres away when the incident occurred, corrections
officials said.
After the assault, Williams returned to his cell where he was found by prison staff,
Deputy Chief Commissioner Sir Ken Jones said.
Paramedics said Williams went into cardiac arrest and could not be revived.
He was pronounced dead at 1.47pm.
Williams' lawyer Rob Stary said they both thought that safety was not an issue at
the jail.
"We thought he was in safe circumstances, he thought he was in safe circumstances.
It was never an issue that was raised," Mr Stary told ABC Radio.
Stary said he spoke to Williams about 9am (AEST) on Monday about an article in a
News Ltd newspaper, which reported that Victoria Police have paid $8000 to allow his
daughter to attend a top private school.
Mr Stary told AAP he and Williams talked "about how disturbed we were that material
was being leaked to the press" and putting his daughter at risk.
Underworld figure and Williams enemy Mick Gatto had little sympathy.
"I would rather let dead dogs lie," he told AAP.
It is known that enemies of Williams were kept away from him in another unit at the
prison, while his allies from Melbourne's bloody gangland war were in the Acacia
unit.
Corrections Victoria has launched an inquiry into how the assault occurred in its
maximum security unit, where inmates are kept in solitary confinement.
Williams was serving life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 35 years after
pleading guilty to ordering the murders of three underworld rivals and the failed
conspiracy to murder lawyer Mario Condello.
He pleaded guilty in 2007 of murdering underworld figures Jason Moran, Lewis Moran
and Mark Mallia.
He was also convicted of the murder of drug dealer Michael Marshall and multiple
drugs charges.
Sir Ken said homicide squad detectives personally informed Williams' father George,
who was released from prison last June after serving a drug trafficking sentence, of
his son's death.
George Williams stayed inside the family's Broadmeadows home in which Carl grew up
after learning of the death of his son on Monday.
Friends visited during the afternoon to support him as he grieved but Mr Williams
did not comment to the media.
Williams' mother Barbara was found dead in 2009 after an apparent overdose.
Williams had one child with his ex-wife Roberta Williams, a convicted drug trafficker.