AIDS: The Lost Voices
Officer Pearce
Geoffrey Pearce O.A.M. was a prison corrections officer at Long Bay Jail in New South Wales who, shortly after completing his training at 21 with his whole life and career ahead of him, was deliberately stabbed with a needle contaminated with HIV-positive blood by an inmate from the Jail’s AIDS wing, The Malabar Assessment Unit.
There was no clear motive for the attack: colleagues and inmates alike described Pearce as a ‘gentle giant’ who came to the job “with no ego” and was genuinely committed to assisting inmate rehabilitation. Diagnosed HIV positive following the incident, he nonetheless returned to duty and turned his diagnosis and the publicity surrounding the assault into a platform for education, confronting the fear and stigma of the early 1990s by demonstrating that people living with HIV were not contagious in everyday settings and could lead relatively normal lives. His consequential advocacy left such a profound mark in a short time that he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1998 and, in 2020, had a correctional facility named in his honour: the Geoffrey Pearce Correctional Centre.
Photographers: Headshots 1&2, Steve Christo. - Headshot 3&4, Kenneth Stevens - Park, Craig Golding - Bedroom, Rick Stevens
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PRISONER: Farlow, Graham
Graham Leslie Farlow was a prisoner at Long Bay Jail in 1990, serving an eight-year sentence for armed robbery and known to be living with AIDS.
Farlow jabbed Officer Pearce with a needle that contained HIV-infected blood; no clear motive for the attack was ever established. Pearce later testified that tensions had existed between Farlow and several officers, including disputes over the confiscation of his television from his cell.
Farlow died of AIDS-related complications on 25 April 1991, he was 25. Buried on 1 May 1991, religion - Roman Catholic.
As Farlow had died while in custody an inquest was held in October 1992. The coroner heard that, after assaulting Officer Pearce, Farlow began a hunger strike on 12 September 1990 in protest at being transferred to High Security Goulburn Jail following the attack on Officer Pearce.
Constable John Wooden told the court that Farlow had cut his forearm, requiring stitches, and had threatened to splash prison officers with his blood while being transported to hospital. Although many recoiled at the severity of the attack on Officer Pearce, the coroner criticised the NSW Corrections Services for failing to notify Farlow’s parents as he lay close to death at Prince Henry Hospital.
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AFTER THE EPSIODE AIRED
We did find press coverage of Geoff’s ex-gratia payment from the government alongside his private pursuit of a claim against his employer, NSW Corrective Services — a position Geoff, to some degree, felt vindicated by when he eventually settled for an undisclosed sum despite NSW Corrective Services declaring it did not concede liability; Geoff declared, “I think the fact that it’s been settled, that’s an admission.”
Geoff c.1994
GEOFFREY PEARCE
CORRECTIONAL CENTRE
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