Rapist avoids more jail for attack in cell

A convicted rapist has avoided an extended prison sentence for a “very violent and prolonged” bashing that sent his cellmate to hospital in May.

Brendon Owen Belfield, pictured, currently serving a four year and 10 month sentence for two counts ofsexual penetration without consent, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm via video link in Albany Magistrate’s Court last Thursday.

The court heard that Belfield had a long-running argument with his victim which escalated on the night of May 8, while they were watching television.

Belfield jumped down from the top bunk of their shared cell and started punching the man in the face and chest while he lay on the bottom bunk.

The victim alerted prison officers through the cell’s call button before being taken to Albany Regional Hospital with facial injuries.

Magistrate Raelene Johnston said she took into consideration the length of Belfield’s sentence for the 2017 rape, before handing him a two-month community-based order to be served concurrently.

“I am reducing my penalty I would otherwise impose,” she said.

“The incident was very violent and prolonged, you caught the victim unaware. It was an extreme form of aggression.”

During his October hearing for non-consensual sexual penetration, the court heard Belfield knew the woman and she had invited him into her home, before she was sexually assaulted and injured in her struggle to escape.

The victim escaped and jumped over a back fence before contacting a member of the public.

“She provided you with a glass of water ... however, to your regret now, you took the opportunity to sexually assault her,” Judge Christopher Stevenson said in sentencing last year.

In September 2018, Belfield was convicted of two counts of unlawful indecent assault of a woman while she slept at a house party.