Daniel Morcombe’s killer, Brett Peter Cowan has been stabbed in the neck and ear during a violent jail attack at Wolston prison on the outskirts of Brisbane.
Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) confirmed to Starts at 60 on Friday that Cowan, 48, was the victim of the attack, but said he did not “sustain any serious injury”.
A QCS spokesperson told Starts at 60: “A prisoner suffered superficial wounds to his neck and ear when he was assaulted by another prisoner in a common area of Secure Unit 3 at Wolston Correctional Centre on Friday, 4 May.”
“Queensland Corrective Services officers brought the situation quickly under control. No officers were injured. The prisoner did not sustain any serious injury. The matter has been referred to the Queensland Police Corrective Services Investigation Unit.”
Cowan is serving a life sentence for murdering the Sunshine Coast teenager in 2003.
The attack on Cowan’s life is just the latest in a series of attempts since he entered the prison system. He was kept in isolation for the first two years of his sentence after it became clear his fellow inmates were itching to get their hands on him. The jail reportedly goes into a full security lockdown every time he is moved throughout the facility, to ensure his safety.
Last May, prison guards foiled a plot by inmates at the prison to attack and kill Cowan. Guards told Seven News they confronted the inmate who planned to take out Cowan, saying he ran away from staff and cut himself with a razor to keep them at bay. Up to four prisoners were reportedly involved in the plot.
In August 2016, Cowan was taken to hospital after a fellow inmate reportedly threw boiling water over him.
Daniel’s disappearance captured nation-wide attention in 2003 and sparked one of the biggest police investigations in Queensland history. On the day he went missing, the teenager had been planning to catch a bus to the his local shopping centre to buy Christmas presents for his family. However, Daniel’s bus passed him without stopping and in a cruel twist of fate, Cowan soon pulled up alongside him and offered him a lift. He then took the young boy back to his home where he attempted to expose himself. When Daniel panicked and tried to flee, Cowan took him by the neck and suffocated him to death.
Cowan was finally brought to justice for his brutal crime in 2014, when he was sentenced to life in jail with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years.