22 Years For Jail Stabbing

Illawarra Mercury

Saturday June 12, 2004

A MAN who stabbed to death a fellow prison inmate in a ``wicked and violent" attack was jailed yesterday for up to 22 years.

Mark Dempsey Knight, 39, was convicted in the NSW Supreme Court of murdering Craig Brookes Dally in March 2000.

Knight was serving time at Bathurst jail for violent offences when he and another unidentified inmate went into Dally's cell to ask for tobacco.

Dally was stabbed 20 times with a sharp instrument in the neck, chest and body. His throat was slit.

Knight continues to deny responsibility for the murder, claiming he was framed.

But Justice Graham Barr noted that Knight ``was not prepared to put his life at risk by assisting police" in the matter.

The judge said he could find no reasons for the murder, which involved some degree of planning.

``Even if there was a difference of opinion about tobacco, that would scarcely explain such a savage attack," he said.