Paracetamol - a basic medication to ease COVID-19 symptoms - was not provided to an infected prisoner who was "just ... locked away" in a single-person cell, a judge has been told.
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Brendan Leigh Russell, a NSW body modifier awaiting sentencing for manslaughter, sobbed on Monday as he detailed his past 11 weeks in custody in Sydney prisons as the Omicron wave took hold.
"I feel isolated and ... constant anxiety," he told his NSW Supreme Court bail hearing.
"When I had COVID, they don't give you Panadol or anything, so I was just in pain and locked away in a room."
Some prison food also left him "on the toilet with diarrhoea", his anti-depressant medications were irregularly provided and contact with his wife and relatives had recently been limited to phone calls, he said.
"There are no in-person visits ... because of short staffing throughout the jail - it's complete shutdown," he said from Parklea prison.
"Around 80 inmates are in the one yard so it's a big line-up for the phone calls."
Russell, whose bail application was later dismissed, was taken into custody in mid-November after a District Court judge found him guilty of three crimes committed against body modification clients between 2015 and 2017.
The final procedure resulted in a woman's death, with the court finding Russell deterred her from seeking medical attention after the site of a silicon snowflake implant became infected.
After being exposed to COVID-19 at Parklea in early January, he spent three weeks in isolation cells there and at the Silverwater remand centre.
More than 600 cases have been detected in NSW correctional settings this month, including 60 on January 18.
An independent inquiry was ordered in October into conditions at Parklea after allegations were aired in court that COVID-negative prisoners were forced to bunk with positive cellmates.
The "very harsh" conditions and their impact on Russell's mental health warranted release on strict conditions before his sentence, scheduled for March 7, his lawyer submitted.
"He understands he will be returning to custody, the hope is the conditions in custody will improve (by then)," Michal Mantaj said.
The Crown opposed release, submitting Russell posed a high risk of fleeing or committing further offences,
Further, the tougher conditions were a result of authorities responding to the Omicron wave, which appeared to be peaking, barrister Katherine Jeffreys said.
"Whilst there is still uncertainty about what the future will bring, it appears to be improving," she said.
Justice Michael Walton accepted there were unacceptable risks, given the "significance and severity" of the body modifications, their risk to the public and the inevitable jail term hanging over Russell's head.
Those concerns couldn't be overcome by any bail conditions, he ruled.
Russell, who pleaded not guilty to each charge, had been considered a "god" by his last victim, who received a silicon snowflake hand implant in his Central Coast parlour two weeks before her death.
Trial judge Helen Syme found a substantial cause of death was sepsis stemming from an infection that started in the hand.
Russell also awaits sentencing for two earlier crimes, having left a victim of 2015 female genital mutilation unable to use tampons and a victim of a 2016 "clearly dangerous" abdominoplasty or "tummy tuck" with significant scarring.
Australian Associated Press
