High-risk inmate has two years added to lengthy jail term after 'ferocious' stabbing

Kaewklom was initially charged with attempted murder. But after a judge-alone trial, during which he claimed he stabbed the man in self-defence, Kaewklom was found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Kaewklom is serving a maximum 20 years in jail, with a non-parole period of 15 years and six months for the stomping murder of 69-year-old Frank McGregor, a registered child sex offender who was placed in his holding cell at Liverpool and a similar attack on his 15-year-old girlfriend five days earlier.

In 2013, Supreme Court Justice Peter Johnson described both attacks, during which Kaewklom targeted the heads of his "vulnerable victims", as "brutal", "cowardly" and "frenzied".

At that time, Justice Johnson had categorised Kaewklom's prospects of rehabilitation as "guarded".

On Friday, Judge Buscombe downgraded those prospects to "poor".

"Given that it is the third offence involving significant violence and this offence occurred while serving a sentence for murder and again while in some form of custody with the victim is an aggravating factor," Judge Buscombe said.

He said Kaewklom's time in custody was currently overseen by the Serious Offenders Review Counsel, an independent authority that manages the prison population's worst offenders.

"He has had 19 disciplinary infringements while in jail and had been placed in segregation," Judge Buscombe said.

A psychiatric report revealed Kaewklom did not comprehend the seriousness of the offence "beyond the effect it may have on his release date," the judge said.

Kaewklom, who was eligible for release on parole in August 2026, was jailed for a maximum of six years, with a non-parole period of four-and-a-half years for the Lithgow jail attack.

But Judge Buscombe ordered that the sentences be served partially concurrently, meaning Kaewklom will be eligible for parole in August 2028.