A man obsessed with “torture porn” has been jailed for bludgeoning a sex worker with a hammer in a brutal attack at a luxury hotel.
Matthew Donaldson, 44, was sentenced to nine years in prison in the NSW District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent to kill.
He kept a blank face and kept his eyes downcast behind thick black-rimmed glasses as he was jailed following the brutal Feb. 23, 2021, attack.
In the weeks leading up to the attack, the court heard the 44-year-old was increasingly watching sadistic pornography.
The court heard video game addict Matthew Shane Donaldson had a gun on him when he bludgeoned a sex worker with a hammer in a brutal attack at a luxury hotel.
Matthew Shane Donaldson packed ‘torture porn kit’ before attacking woman with hammer
He intended to simulate some of the extreme sexual interactions with the sex worker and packed a “torture porn kit” containing ball gags, rope, duct tape and lube.
Donaldson also carried a gun, knife and hammer when he checked into the former Primus Hotel on Pitt St, according to the agreed facts.
He had bought the hammer in Bunnings earlier that afternoon and had read numerous articles about the murders, including an article about a murdered sex worker.
The video game fan met the sex worker at the hotel bar after 8pm and they went up to her five-star hotel room.
The court heard he used a knife to cut the woman’s underwear during what was supposed to be her first ever sexual experience, and she became uncomfortable.
When the two became involved in a heated argument over the ethics of sex work, the 44-year-old repeatedly hit the sex worker on the head with the hammer.
Judge Antony Townsend said the victim suffered a “frenzied and brutal attack” which left him with permanent injuries to his brain and face.
“The injuries were likely to cause death,” he said.
Donaldson left the 26-year-old woman lying in a pool of her own blood with multiple fractures to her skull, cheek and eye socket as he fled the scene.
She spent three months in hospital and had to undergo reconstructive surgery to rebuild her skull. His vision will remain permanently damaged.
As she bled, her attacker sent her a cruel and mocking text that read: “I should have chosen a different career, darling.”
Justice Townsend noted that the 44-year-old virgin had become “unhappy with the way her life had developed” in the years leading up to the unprovoked assault.
In particular, the court was told he disputed his “inability to form a long-term intimate relationship”.
The victim spent two weeks in intensive care and has ongoing cognitive problems following the attack.
Matthew Donaldson, 44, was sentenced to nine years in prison in the NSW District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent to kill.
Donaldson told police he intended to spend all his remaining money “living the life” in the luxury hotel and indulging his sadistic fantasies with escorts before killing himself.
As he fled the scene, he shared two photos from the hotel room with the caption “Game over.” A friend asked him what video game he played.
‘Life or death. I lost,” the 44-year-old replied.
He told police he “heard voices telling him to do this” during the bloody attack, which was attributed to his untreated schizophrenia.
“I am satisfied that his mental illness impaired his thought process and that the offense occurred within the context of the offender’s delusional belief system,” Justice Townsend said.
He determined that the diagnoses of schizophrenia and autism reduced Donaldson’s moral culpability and warranted a longer non-parole period.
The judge noted that the 44-year-old had shown remorse for the violent attack and had no criminal record.
Donaldson also pleaded guilty to possessing a loaded firearm in a public place and possessing a prohibited weapon without a license, which were factors in his sentence.
Judge Townsend sentenced him to a total of nine years in prison, including six years without parole.
He can be released on February 24, 2027.
