Attempted killer Flynn Donohue repeatedly attacked guards at Canberra's jail

CONTENT WARNING: This article contains graphic content.

After slicing the throat of a man at a house party and then stabbing a fellow jail inmate 38 times, a teenager went on to assault three guards at Canberra’s prison.

Flynn Donohue is only 19, but he poses a risk to the community, prison guards and other jail inmates, the ACT Magistrates Court heard on Monday (14 April).

Last year, he was sentenced to over 13 years’ jail with a six-year non-parole period on charges that included attempted murder.

In July 2023, he was 18 when he used a knife to cut the throat of a man at a house party, resulting in his victim needing life-saving emergency surgery.

He then stabbed another inmate at the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) 38 times with a wooden spike that December, leaving 11 wounds to the man’s neck.

In July 2024, he committed two assaults on prison guards at the AMC, for which another six months was added to his non-parole period when he was sentenced later that year.

But just two months after these assaults, in September 2024, he was walking back to his cell at the prison’s management unit with his wrists restrained when he launched a surprise attack on a guard by elbowing him twice in his face while his victim had his back turned.

The guard was taken to hospital with bruising and swelling to his face.

Magistrate Jane Campbell said the CCTV of the incident, which was played to the court on Monday, showed it was “a totally unprovoked assault” on the unsuspecting guard.

Donohue pleaded guilty to a charge of assault over this attack, and four correctional officers brought him into the courtroom in handcuffs to be sentenced on Monday.

His lawyer, Paul Edmonds, said his client didn’t go anywhere in the jail without wrist restraints, which were sometimes fixed to his belt so he couldn’t move his arms.

He said his client had been in the AMC management unit for nine months. Management units are for high-risk inmates.

The lawyer noted the delay it took for police to lay a charge over this attack, arguing his client could have been sentenced for it when he was sentenced for the assaults on the two other guards last year if it had been laid earlier.

Magistrate Campbell said it was likely Donohue would be housed in a management unit for a considerable part of his sentence due to his behavioural issues as well as the risks he presented to corrections officers and the general population.

“It is a difficult job being a corrections officer in the first place,” she told him.

“Your unpredictable behaviour is what makes their job scarier.”

She said while he had mental health issues such as Tourette syndrome, autism, ADHD, as well as cannabis use disorder in remission, his mental health was treatable.

She also said his mental health made him a risk to those in the AMC as well as in the community when he is eventually released.

Magistrate Campbell was concerned he may continue to act violently at the AMC, which would add more time to his jail sentence and reduce his possibilities of getting parole.

She said there was a risk he may become institutionalised, but she had to send a strong message to him.

“You can’t be assaulting officers, because if you are, you’ll keep coming back,” she told him.

Donohue was sentenced to an extra 12 months’ jail and had his non-parole period extended by two months.

This means he is now serving a total of 15 years and five months’ jail, ending in 2039, with a six-year and eight-month non-parole period that ends in April 2030.