A Westgate inmate serving a 24-year sentence for aggravated burglary and sexual assault has pleaded guilty to assaulting a female prison officer.

Raymond Kidd, 31, was charged with unlawfully assaulting the on-duty officer, causing bodily harm, during an incident involving other inmates in March 2023.

At a hearing this week, Kidd’s attorney argued that he should not be charged as he was “punished” by being placed in disciplinary segregation immediately after the incident, before moving to a maximum security unit where he remained for several months.

However, that argument was dismissed by Puisne Judge Alan Richards at a hearing on Wednesday.

In his ruling, Mr Justice Richards wrote: “There are two possibilities so far as what was done with Mr Kidd after the incident: either it was properly done to keep order in the prison [ie, for protective or preventive purposes] or it was improperly done by way of punishment.

“I incline to the former view. I do not accept that the prison authorities were obliged to keep Mr Kidd under the same precisely the same conditions he was in before this incident until the matter had been adjudicated.

“Plainly, he had to be separated from the other inmates involved in the incident [their involvement being in connected events before and after the alleged assault].”

After Mr Justice Richards’s ruling, Kidd pleaded guilty to the charge. He will be sentenced on Thursday.

Kidd was jailed after playing the leading role in a two-man house break-in in March 2012. During the raid, Kidd threatened one woman with a gun and forced a second woman to perform a sex act on him.

Kidd and his accomplice escaped with $5,000 of cash, jewellery and electronics, fleeing on two stolen motorcycles.

Sentencing Kidd in January 2013, Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons said he had inspired terror by violating his victim’s home and person.

She called Kidd the ringleader of the “depraved” offence which showed a wanton disregard for the health and safety of his victims.

“Not only was the victim a young woman, but she had a young child in the house,” Justice Simmons said.

“It might have been about sexual gratification, but it was also about power.”

Justice Simmons sentenced Kidd to 12 years’ imprisonment for sexual assault, and another 12 years for aggravated burglary, to run consecutively.

She further sentenced Kidd to four years for assault with intent to rob, and ten years for using a firearm to commit and indictable offence, but those were to run concurrently with the other sentences.

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