The madness continues: Jessica Camilleri hacked off her mother's head in a crime that shocked Australia. She's just done something so grim behind bars that it may get her MORE jail time | Retrui News | Retrui
The madness continues: Jessica Camilleri hacked off her mother's head in a crime that shocked Australia. She's just done something so grim behind bars that it may get her MORE jail time
SOURCE:Daily Mail
A Sydney woman who cut off her mother's head and dumped it on the footpath has been bragging about her ghastly crime and threatening to behead other women in jail if they annoy her.
A notorious female killer who hacked off her mother's head and dumped it on the footpath for horrified neighbours to see faces having her prison sentence extended because of her disturbing behaviour in jail.
The Daily Mail can exclusively reveal that Jessica Camilleri - who decapitated her mum Rita on the night of July 20, 2019, after a fight over a Red Rooster takeaway order - has been bragging about her ghastly crime to terrorise other women behind bars, and even threatens to behead fellow prisoners just like she did her mother.
The unhinged 31-year-old - who has viciously attacked prison officers in the past, tearing out parts of their scalps in deranged fury - could now serve more time for assaulting other officers, as well as female inmates.
Camilleri, who complains she is 'bullied' behind bars because of her ghastly crime, actually 'boasts' about it to inmates and tells them she will behead them the way she did her mother 'if they p*** her off', an officer revealed.
When Jessica killed Rita Camilleri in the kitchen of their western Sydney home six and a half years ago, she also cut out her mother's tongue and gouged out her eyeballs.
Gruesome details of that evening include the fact Jessica stood outside in a blood-soaked blue floral dress and asked police if her mother's head could be sewn back on.
'Mum's head is on the path,' she said in a spine-chilling conversation that was recorded on police bodycam. 'Half her nose fell off in the struggle.'
'Can you bring someone back to life if they don't have a head? 'Cos I know doctors can do miracles - they can't re-sew her head?' she added.
Rita Camilleri (left) cared for her troubled daughter single-handedly until Jessica (right) turned on her in a rage and decapitated her, removing her eyes, nose and tongue before asking police if Rita's head could not be sewn back on
Inside the family home, police found Rita's headless body on the kitchen floor, with knives strewn about and the woman's tongue, eyes and nose nearby
The scene inside was like an abattoir, while outside Jessica urged police to find where she had placed her mother's head on the path, saying 'I know doctors can do miracles, they can't re-sew her head?'
Gruesome details of that evening include the fact Jessica stood outside in a blood-soaked blue floral dress and asked police if her mother's head could be sewn back on
However, since being arrested and incarcerated that night, Camilleri has played the victim when facing police.
After attacking prison staff in 2021, she told one officer: 'I just wanted to give [her] a little bit of the taste of [her] own medicine for the s*** they've been doing to me… since I've been here.'
In reality, prison officers say the convicted killer has been the aggressor and has 'ruined the lives' of officers, leaving them traumatised and unable to work.
Camilleri received just over 16 years' jail for her charge of manslaughter - downgraded from murder - but faces extra jail time for her latest assaults.
She is due in court on February 17 for sentencing on one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm of a fellow inmate, and two offences of assaulting prison officers in May 2025.
It's the fourth time since entering custody that she has been charged with ripping chunks of hair from officers' scalps. Graphic videos of the attacks, which left the victims with bald patches and psychological scars, were shown in court.
In eerie police bodycam video of the aftermath of the original offence against her mother, Camilleri could be seen standing under a streetlight in her blood-soaked dress, eagerly discussing Rita's demise.
The horrific crime - which occurred on a quiet street in the suburb of St Clair, about 40km from Sydney's CBD - did not come out of nowhere.
After decapitating her own mother, Jessica Camilleri brags to other inmates about her crime and tells them she will do the same to them if they annoy her. (Pictured: the scalp of one of the female prison workers she attacked)
'I was so angry. I remember stabbing my mum, I wouldn't stop, was getting her everywhere. I was getting the adrenaline going,' Jessica Camilleri said after decapitating her mother
Jessica's chilling final post before killing her mother (above). She later said her favourite films The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Jeepers Creepers inspired her to sever her mother's head
Diagnosed with personality and learning disorders and bullied at school, Camilleri had been warned before that night that Rita was considering arranging her return to a mental‑health facility to give herself respite from her daughter's rising aggression.
Jessica had a lengthy history of assault and had harassed and threatened family members. In the year prior to killing Rita, she threatened to cut off strangers' heads.
Her favourite films were Jeepers Creepers and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre - both horror movies featuring violent killings and dismemberment.
In 2018, she became fixated on the manager of a Victorian meat business, developing a 'huge crush' and bombarding his butchery with hundreds of hoax calls.
She threatened to decapitate unsuspecting staff - many of them his family - when they answered the phone.
Her calls included threats such as, 'You're going to die of f***ing cancer, and if not, I'll stab you until you die, motherf***er,' and often ended with, 'I will cut your head off with a knife.'
After apologetic calls from Rita Camilleri to the business owner, calls from Jessica would stop for a week or two before starting again. A mortified Rita would explain that she had 'found another phone in Jessica's room and confiscated it'.
The day she killed her mother, Jessica was clearly agitated by the prospect of possibly returning to a mental health facility after she had threatened a random member of the public on a street.
By killing Rita, Jessica destroyed the only friend she had, who had endured her obsessions and outbursts - behaviour that had already driven the rest of the family away
Court exhibit of hair collected after it was wrenched from a prison officer's scalp behind bars by Jessica Camilleri in one of her continuing attacks on staff and inmates
The scene the next day after Jessica Camilleri's relentless attack on her mother - the area where Rita's head was left on the pavement is covered by a tarp
On the night of the killing, Rita had ordered Red Rooster for her daughter's dinner - but Jessica had complained that she was still hungry, and wanted a second order.
The final straw came when Rita went to Jessica's room to try to wrest from her another mobile phone - and then the attack began.
One account of the furious onslaught was told by Jessica to forensic psychiatrist Professor David Greenberg 'in a concrete, matter-of-fact tone without any emotion or remorse'.
'Mum was slapping me,' she said. 'She grabbed me by the hair. I grabbed Mum. I dragged Mum all the way to the kitchen by the hair.
'I saw red. I remember pulling the knife. I wanted to scare her at first. Mum... got the knife off me and chucked it away.
'I was so agitated, I lost it. I was stabbing her... I was so angry. I remember stabbing my mum, I wouldn't stop, was getting her everywhere.
'I was getting the adrenaline going. I think I had sick thoughts I got off horror movies.
'I got the idea to cut her head off from the movies... Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Jeepers Creepers and Saw. I thought it might relieve her pain.'
On the vinyl tiles of the kitchen, police found Rita Camilleri's headless body alongside a tongue and eyeballs. Underneath the fridge was a piece of skin believed to be a human nose
Using multiple knives, Jessica inflicted at least '100 stab wounds to her mother's head', an autopsy stated.
'Innumerable overlapping stab wounds associated with decapitation to the neck' would sever Rita's head at the C2 vertebra at the top of her neck.
The scene in the kitchen of the bungalow at 128 St Clair Avenue was like an abattoir.
Jessica tried to get a neighbour to call the police, but in the end dialled Triple-0 herself.
She told the operator: 'Mum has had enough of me. In self-defence, I think I killed her.
'I was so heated up with anger, I just kept stabbing and stabbing and stabbing her and I took off her head.
'I ran to my neighbour. I had my mum's head in my hand, I know this sounds insane...'
Jessica outlined a scenario, which would prove baseless, that Rita had tried to stab her first.
Police found Rita's headless body lying face down in pink pyjamas on the vinyl tiles of the kitchen floor. Six knives - some broken, some intact - lay strewn around her.
Rita Camilleri was her daughter's only friend but was at her wit's end by 2019 when she ended up dying at her hands. A Facebook message illustrating her frustration is shown here
In surreal scenes outside her house, Jessica asked police, 'There's nothing you can do, she's a goner? I thought doctors could do miracle surgeries and put the head back on. No?'
According to a police statement later read in court, 'to the right was a human tongue, further to the right under the fridge was a piece of skin I believed to be a human nose.
'The head… had numerous jagged and penetrating wounds exposing the cervical spine. Human eyeballs were on the tiles under the deceased's neck.'
Rita was almost completely covered in blood and had defensive wounds on her right hand and wrist.
A pair of earrings lay nearby, and by the injuries to Rita's earlobes, police concluded that they had been 'removed with force'. She was 57 years old.
In the surreal conversation recorded between the blood-drenched Jessica and the officer on the bodycam, she asked, 'I won't get the death penalty or anything?'
She pointed police to where she left Rita's head on the path and continued to ask about the possibility of it being sewn back on.
'There's nothing you can do, she's a goner? They can't restart her heart? I think her eyes and her tongue came out,' she said.
'The nurses can't do a miracle and bring her back? I thought doctors can do miracle surgeries and put the head back on. No?'
Since being incarcerated, Jessica Camilleri has lashed out at prison officers and other inmates, threatening to decapitate them if they annoy her
Camilleri attacked prison officers inside Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre, grabbing their hair and wrenching it from their scalps, leaving them with bald spots and trauma
The officer replied: 'That's a bit of a stretch.'
She also told the officer she was 'not fit' to go to jail because 'I've got a really bad illness. The only place I'm probably fit for is a group home.'
Jessica Camilleri was sentenced to 21 years and seven months behind bars, which was reduced to 16 years and six months on appeal, making her eligible for parole in July 2031.
In custody, her menacing behaviour and constant assaults have seen an additional piling on of 17 months to her sentence, although after an appeal she will serve that time concurrently with her manslaughter sentence.
Next month, however, a magistrate will decide whether to extend her earliest release date with additional sentencing time so as to deter her from lashing out again.
She faces an additional three charges, of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of common assault, believed to have been carried out against an inmate.
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