Why I bashed the evil Skaf gang rape ringleader in a jail yard showdown. It cost me more time behind bars, but I don’t regret it
A recently released prisoner has given a blow-by-blow account of the day he unleashed a brutal attack on the notorious rapist Bilal Skaf in a maximum-security jail.
Jesse Reid, 33, was awaiting sentencing in Goulburn Correctional Centre for a string of violent crimes when he encountered Skaf, who was serving 55 years for a series of gang rapes in Sydney’s south-west.
Reid agreed to join a planned ambush on Skaf in 2015 after taking an instant dislike to the gang leader when he witnessed him boasting’ about his sickening crimes.
‘I never liked him. He’s a grub. He is just a typical scumbag,’ Reid said in a YouTube interview with reformed prison gang leader Nathan Paddison.
‘Leading up to it there was a few things he used to do. He used to boast about the crimes and he used to say that he had done the right thing.
‘They were ‘Aussie pigs’ – that’s what he called them – and said they dressed like prostitutes and deserved to be raped.’
Skaf and his brother Mohammed were part of a gang of 14 mostly Muslim Lebanese Australians who went on a four-week rampage of raping Australian women and teenage girls in Sydney.
In the lead-up to the 2000 Olympics, the members, all aged 13-18 lured the girls from shopping centres and train stations and took them to parks and public toilet blocks.
Jesse Reid has given a blow-by-blow account of the day he unleashed a brutal attack on the notorious rapist Bilal Skaf in a maximum-security jail. Pictured is the incident
Jesse Reid, 33, was awaiting sentencing in Goulburn Correctional Centre for a string of violent crimes when he encountered Bilal Skaf
Gang leader Bilal Skaf is serving 55 years for a series of rapes
One of the victims was raped 25 times by a total of 14 men in Bankstown in Sydney’s south-west, in an ordeal that lasted six hours, during which the attackers subjected her to racist taunts.
Skaf was convicted on 21 counts of aggravated rape, assault and kidnapping.
Reid, who was first arrested at age 14 for selling marijuana from a KFC carpark in Belmont north of Sydney has been in prison for most of his adult life.
His record consists of violent offences including grievous bodily harm and home invasions.
He says at the time of the attack, people assumed it was racially motivated but it was a particularly sickening comment from Skaf led to his brutal bashing.
‘We used to tell him to shut up, but the [Lindt Cafe] terrorist attack happened in Sydney,’ Reid said.
‘The next day he has come out and said [Lindt Cafe terrorist] Man Monis is a martyr and all this bullshit, so we thought this guy is an idiot, he is definitely an idiot.’
On the morning of December 15, 2014, terrorist Monis took eight staff members and 10 customers hostage inside the popular Lindt Chocolate Cafe on Martin Place, in the middle of Sydney CBD.
Jesse Reid opened up to reformed gang leader Nathan Paddison for his YouTube channel
Skaf was convicted on 21 counts of aggravated rape, assault and kidnapping
Man Haron Monis took 18 people hostage in the Lindt Chocolate Café in December 2014
The terrorist claimed he was armed with a shotgun, and a bomb in his backpack.
After a 17 hour siege, the cafe’s manager, Tori Johnson, 34, was shot dead by Monis promoting police to storm the building.
Barrister and Sydney mother-of-three, Katrina Dawson, 38, was hit by fragments of police bullets and also died.
Reid had Skaf in his sights from then on, and four months later on April 10, 2015, along with two other inmates, he took his opportunity.
‘They decided I should get him first, so I got him in the toilets, you don’t see that on any of the footage,’ Reid said, referring to CCTV released after the incident.
‘As he turned around to walk out, I just hit him. I had him down there and I gave him a bit of a touch up and I told him to get out to the yard.
‘He reckoned he wasn’t going out there and he went around to try to get the Muslims to jump me, but my mate, who is a Muslim, king hit him and knocked him out.
‘We stomped his head and kicked him in the face a few times. Spat on him and then dragged him out.
‘The whole jail was watching and everyone was cheering.’
Skaf, who was 18 at the time of his sickening crimes, is not eligible for parole until 2033
Both Reid and Skaf were housed in Goulburn Correctional Centre at the time
After the assault, Skaf was treated in hospital for head injuries.
Reid was later sentenced to a further 18 months on top of his other convictions for his role in the attack.
A second inmate Travis Lee Braam, 25, was also convicted of the assault, which resulted in serious facial injuries to Skaf.
Braam was serving a 15-year sentence for a November 2010 home invasion in South Grafton in the NSW Northern Rivers region.
Braam was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment, to be served concurrently with his existing sentence.
The third attacker was serving 25-years and no further time was added to his sentence.
Skaf was aged 18 at the time of his rapes and is not eligible for parole until February 11, 2033.
Reid was released from prison last November after serving 12 years.
He’s determined to leave his life of crime behind to pursue charity work around prison reforms.
