A PRISON officer who was woken in the middle of the night by three colleagues who held him down, repeatedly questioned him and assaulted him says he was also the victim of another unrelated assault at the hands of a different prison guard.
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Prison officers Owen John Kemp and Jake William McCaig pleaded not guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault, entering inclosed lands and remaining on inclosed lands and faced the first day of a hearing in Cessnock Local Court on Thursday.
Another guard Dayle Alexander Mickle pleaded not guilty to entering inclosed lands and remaining on inclosed lands in relation to the incident at the victim's house at Cessnock in the early hours of February 16 last year.
But after hearing evidence from the victim, Mr Kemp and Mr McCaig pleaded guilty to common assault after the prosecution agreed to withdraw the remaining charges. Mr Mickle's charges were withdrawn and the other two men will be sentenced next month.
Before the guilty pleas, the victim had given evidence that he had woken to someone banging on his front door about 12.30am and opened the door to find his three colleagues.
He claimed Mr Kemp forced him back inside his house, saying he wanted to talk to him about something before Mr Kemp held him down on the ground for four minutes and repeatedly asked him about a rumour he had heard that night at the pub.
The victim gave evidence that he told Mr Kemp "what he wanted to hear" so he would let him up and when he went outside to tell the other two men to leave, Mr McCaig swung a punch at him, striking him in the neck.
The victim said he suffered an injury to his shoulder and knee in the attack.
The three men, all represented by barrister Wayne Flynn, disputed the assaults occurred as the other guard claimed.
During his evidence, the victim said after the assault he spoke to his boss before calling police because "I had been in this situation before and I needed to decide what action to take".
He said he had been the alleged victim of a similar attack on an earlier date when he was assaulted by another prison guard in his backyard while two other guards watched on. An issue in Thursday's case was whether the victim suffered injuries that amounted to "actual bodily harm", a more serious charge that could be the difference between the men keeping their jobs.
