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Gangland boss Carl Williams’ murderer Matthew Charles Johnson has been jailed for life, a 32-year minimum.
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THE man who murdered gangland boss Carl Williams has been jailed for life.
Matthew Charles Johnson, 38, must serve at least 32 years for what Justice Lex Lasry described as “an appalling murder”.
Williams was bashed to death as he sat reading a newspaper in a Barwon Prison unit in April last year.
Johnson’s claim of self-defence was rejected by a Supreme Court jury, and today Justice Lasry said it was a “fanciful” defence.
He said Johnson killed Williams because the underworld figure was helping police over the murders of police informer Terence Hodson and his wife Christine.
The judge said Johnson was the “General” of a prison gang called the Prisoners of War who hated anyone assisting police – and he could not be seen to condone what his cellmate Williams was doing.
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Justice Lasry said Johnson seemed to think he had a “special entitlement to kill” and Williams had died as a result of a “meaningless prison code”.
He also hit out at prison authorities for housing Williams with Johnson, who has more than 150 convictions and a known hatred of criminals who assist police.
“How the prison authorities allowed that to happen is beyond me,” he said.
“On any view you were a threat to his welfare.”
Williams’s father George, ex-wife Roberta and her children were in court for the sentencing.