Two twisted killers in one of the most notorious prisons in Australia are said to be locked in a feud so bitter, they’re under strict orders never to see each other ever again.
In July 2019, Jessica Camilleri decapitated her own mother, Rita Camilleri, 57, before allegedly asking whether she could be brought back to life if her head was reattached to her body and her heart restarted. The horror film obsessive, whose favourite movie is believed to be The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, already “had a lengthy history of assaulting people” before stabbing full-time carer Rita more than 100 times.
The NSW Supreme Court also heard Camilleri, now 37, would threaten people during random prank calls, including ones where she claimed she would cut off their heads with a knife. Following her 2020 murder trial in Sydney, jurors found Camilleri guilty of manslaughter due to substantial impairment.
Now, Camilleri is serving out a reduced sentence of 16 years and six months, with a non-parole period of 12 years, at the infamous Silverwater Maximum Security Correctional Complex. She’s reportedly continued to carry out vicious attacks on prison guards and fellow inmates alike, allegedly ripping out “clumps of hair” during violent altercations.
Behind the grim prison walls, Camilleri is also reportedly at war with a woman regarded as Australia’s most dangerous female criminal, Rebecca Jane Butterfield.
Butterfield, 50, first started her sentence as a low-risk inmate in 2000, after she assaulted a neighbour who had attempted to help her with injuries following an incident of self-harming. Her behaviour then escalated in 2003, when she murdered her fellow inmate and only friend, Bluce Lim Ward, who had been nearing the end of her fraud sentence, by stabbing her 33 times using industrial scissors.
Like Camilleri, Butterfield has a reputation at Silverwater for being aggressive. There are currently reports on more than 110 disciplinary matters in her file, including 40 incidents of assault. And it’s understood that Butterfield has a particularly strong dislike of Camilleri, with the two women having been enemies since the moment they met.
Now, a prison insider has told the Daily Mail Australia that the pair have been given a non-association order, which means they are prohibited from associating with each other or communicating under any circumstances. The source explained: “They hate each other and Butterfield even claims that when Camilleri talks about chopping her mum’s head off, which she frequently does, it sets her off on violent outbursts.”
They added: “Butterfield spirals with any mention of her stepmum, which is probably why Camilleri talking about her mum triggers her.”
Discussing Camilleri’s outbursts, another insider told the publication: “She has become an ongoing problem. She has to be monitored at all times because she will use any opportunity to cause harm. There has already been time added to her sentence for attacks involving extreme hair-pulling. She has scalped people with her bare hands, and anything can set her off.”
In 2024, Butterfield was reportedly transferred from Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre, in Sydney’s west, to Long Bay prison 2024. However, in May of that same year, she was quietly released from prison and admitted to a secure forensic hospital as an involuntary patient, where she receives ongoing treatment for various severe mental health disorders.
Although Butterfield’s full-term sentence ended almost eight years ago, the question remains as to what will happen next, with facility doctors left to face the decision as to whether she can ever be permitted to rejoin the community.
Meanwhile, Camilleri is currently serving her sentence at Dillwynia Correctional Centre in Sydney’s west, where she allegedly pulled “clumps of hair” from the scalp of a fellow prisoner back in February – allegedly the sixth incident of this nature.
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