A prison officer reveals how an inmate saved his life from a brutal bashing by a criminal gang.

In the fifth episode of Behind the Walls: The Blue and the Green, crime journalist and former author Michael Duffy talks to Long Bay’s Paul Coyne about the often surprising interactions between officers and inmates.

“Mutual respect between inmates and officers is really important and I honestly believe that it pretty much saved my life,” Paul says.

“I was being assaulted at Long Bay when an inmate heard it happening, so he stuck his head out and called for help to my colleagues.

“Then he came flying up and belted one of the inmates so hard I thought he had killed him – he went down like a sack of potatoes – and then he turned to the other two and said, ‘Don’t you ever lay a hand on Mr Coyne again’.”

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