The worst pedophile in Australian history will likely spend the next 30 years inside a secure unit inside one of Queensland’s most famous prisons to keep him safe from the general prison population – but even that might not be enough to protect him from future attacks.
Ashley Paul Griffith, 46, is currently holed up in the sectioned S3 unit within Wolston Correctional Centre, south of Brisbane.
Griffith, who was sentenced to life without parole for 27 years in the Brisbane District Court last Friday for the most unimaginable crimes committed against girls over two decades, has already spent a year in the remand unit.
It is home to some of Australia’s most depraved murderers, rapists and pedophiles.
Notable prisoners include Leonard Fraser, the ‘Rockhampton rapist’, who died in 2007, and Robert Paul Long, who started the Childers Palace Backpackers Hostel fire in 2000, which killed 15 people.
Brett Peter Cowan, the notorious killer of schoolboy Daniel Morcombe, whom he murdered on the Sunshine Coast in 2003, is also in the unit.
But the closure walls of the S3 unit do not mean that high-profile criminals are completely immune from prison justice.
Last year, both Cowan and Griffith were subjected to a “jail napalm” attack, for which the latter required hospital treatment.
Ashley Paul Griffith (pictured), 46, is currently sheltering in unit S3 within Wolston Correctional Centre, south of Brisbane.
Griffith, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a period of 27 years in the Brisbane District Court on Friday for the most unimaginable crimes committed, has already spent a year in unit S3 within the Wolston Correctional Center (in the photo) while he was in preventive detention.
Another inmate made a scalding cocktail of jam and boiling water before throwing it at the pedophile couple.
The jam causes the sugar to increase the boiling temperature and creates a super hot slime that sticks to the skin, maximizing pain and injury.
Wolston Correctional Center houses about 925 prisoners.
The attack occurred just days after Griffith was publicly identified as the child care worker accused of more than 300 counts of child abuse, including rape.
“It’s no secret that Griffith will be a target as long as he lives,” a correctional services source told Daily Mail Australia.
“Some prisoners will see attacking him as a reward to elevate his status among other inmates, even if it means lengthening his own sentence.”
“Of course the prison guards will be extremely vigilant, but Wolston is very overcrowded and they don’t have eyes in the back of their heads, as last year’s napalm attack showed.”
If Cowan’s experience is anything to go by, then Griffith will have a terrible time.
Last year, both child killer Brett Peter Cowan (pictured) and Griffith were subjected to a ‘jail napalm’ attack, for which the latter required hospital treatment.
Cowan has been attacked at least four times over the years. In 2016, Adam Paul Davidson, then 31, snuck up behind him while he was playing cards and poured boiling water on his head.
The killer was left writhing in pain, screaming “why?” over and over again with the skin peeling off his face and shoulders.
When asked about the burns, Davidson later told police: “I didn’t want to kill him or anything, I just wanted to hurt him… I just wanted him to feel the pain.”
“Feel the pain that someone like Daniel Morcombe has felt.”
In 2018, Cowan was stabbed in the neck with a makeshift knife, but the attacker did not draw blood.
That same year, inmates started a riot as a distraction so they could throw hot condiments at Cowan, but guards thwarted their plan.
He is said to now live in a constant state of fear.
Ashley Paul Griffith, 46, was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a period of 27 years in the Brisbane District Court last week.
Griffith’s imprisonment is not cheap either.
The cost of incarceration to the taxpayer is $147,900 per inmate per year, according to a report published by the Institute of Public Affairs last year.
That means if Griffith spends 30 years in prison, it will cost the taxpayer more than $4.4 million.
It comes as several people have been calling for Griffith not to receive special treatment inside the prison out of fear for his safety.
Last year, Liberal National Party senator Matt Canavan told Daily Mail Australia it was time to debate the death penalty.
“Life imprisonment seems too light a sentence for such a heinous crime,” Mr Canavan said.
‘We should really consider the death penalty for people who have ruined so many other lives.
“I was absolutely shocked by the vileness and evil of this behavior and also by the magnitude of it and how this happened for so many years to so many people and why it didn’t stop.”
‘There needs to be a proper investigation into how the information was shared, why this couldn’t be stopped sooner and how we can ensure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.
“I mean, we surely don’t have a strong enough penalty for this heinous individual.”
He added: “This is so bad that there has to be something even stronger than life in prison in my mind.”
Griffith’s crimes include 28 counts of rape, 190 counts of indecent treatment of children, 67 counts of making child exploitation material and 15 counts of maintaining an unlawful relationship with a child.
He also continues to face prosecutions in Italy and New South Wales, where he worked in several nurseries.
Wolston Correctional Center is also the home of Massimo ‘Max’ Sica, the Italian triple murderer who murdered his ex-girlfriend and her two brothers in 2003, and Rick Thorburn, who has attempted to take his own life at least three times after being convicted. of murdering 12 people. Tiahleigh Palmer, a few years old schoolgirl.