Zakariye Mohamed Hussein, 40, has been subject to a term of life imprisonment since 2022 when he was convicted of stabbing a mother of four to death in Christchurch while on day leave from a mental-health facility.
In January, while serving that sentence at the Otago Corrections Facility, the defendant launched a premeditated and sudden attack on an officer there.
Hussein pleaded guilty to injuring with intent to do grievous bodily harm in June but his sentencing that day, to be conducted by video link, was aborted after the prisoner abruptly removed all his clothes.
Yesterday, the defendant remained dressed throughout the hearing and gave a chilling explanation for his impromptu attack behind bars.
"I was overcome by my evil nature. I’m sorry about it," Hussein said.
"I’m an evil man. I can’t help myself."
On January 15, prisoners were being locked in their cells for the night.
Hussein walked up the stairs of his unit carrying a pen and paper to where the victim was standing and, without warning, struck him in the mouth.
The defendant followed that up with "swinging blows" while wielding the pen, causing three puncture wounds to the officer’s arms.
In a statement, the victim said it had been the first time in 21 years that he had been attacked at work and his young daughter wanted him to leave the job for something safer.
He was now more cautious of his surroundings, he said.
Judge Emma Parsons noted it was a continuation of Hussein’s long-running history of violence, which reached its pinnacle in June 2022.
Hussein was walking through the suburb of Sockburn towards his family home when he came across mother of four Laisa Waka Tunidau — someone whom he had never before met — and stabbed her to death.
A decade earlier, he had kidnapped a delivery driver at knifepoint and stabbed a council worker during a rampage across Christchurch.
Then in 2018, he attacked a Hillmorton Hospital nurse and poured a cup of coffee over their head.
"There’s been a persistence in this nature of offending," the judge said.
She sentenced Hussein to two and a-half years’ imprisonment, but that would not be added to his minimum period of 13 years for the murder.
The prison attack would inevitably be considered when the defendant saw the Parole Board, Judge Parsons said.
At the end of yesterday’s hearing, Hussein apologised for his most recent crime.
