‘Don’t play games. Don’t be manipulated’: Dealing with Victoria’s most notorious killers

April 10, 2026 — 11:30am

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Brian Coghlan is easy going and laid-back, an asset he was able to use in his workplace. As a prison officer, he quickly learnt that being seen as a good guy around bad people was the key to life behind bars.

For 26 years at Port Phillip Prison he dealt with the worst society had to offer – sex offenders, serial killers and manipulative mass murderers who many knew were destined to die in jail.

When he first walked into the privately owned prison in 1999, he says, the inmates controlled the jail.

“All the managers were from England,” he says. “We didn’t have anything to arm ourselves with, no gas and battens, and things like that. In fact, the whole prison had no guns in it and no towers. The prisoners knew this, and they could have literally taken it with five minutes’ notice. We had tennis courts and swimming pools, and it was like a holiday camp.”

Coghlan says it was only when former Pentridge Prison officers were recruited that discipline was restored.

He spent most of his 26 years (more than most murderers) working inside the protection unit.

“Many of the prisoners there were high profile, most of them had to be kept away from other inmates,” he says. “These are the prisoners who were actually hated by other inmates. We’re talking child molesters, mass murderers, and people who are just pricks inside.”

He decided very early to deal with each inmate based on how they behaved in jail, not what they did to get there. “If you thought about their crimes, it would do your head in, and you would end up jumping the counter [to assault the offender].

“You had to spend each shift dealing with the worst of the worst; they would drive you mad if you kept thinking about what they did.”

He says a good prison officer spends time learning what makes each inmate tick and tries to find some common ground. Do they like football, punting on horses or talking about their families? And you never ask about their crimes.

“People would often say, ‘How can you work with........

© The Age