Carl Williams' murderer gets life

THE prison inmate who bashed underworld killer Carl Williams to death in Barwon Prison last year has been sentenced to life in jail with a non-parole period of 32 years.

Matthew Johnson, 38, pleaded not guilty to murder on the grounds of self-defence but was convicted by a Supreme Court jury in September.

He told the court another inmate told him Williams was planning to kill him using a sock full of billiard balls.

The murder was captured on the prison's CCTV cameras, which showed Johnson walking up behind Williams and bashing him eight times with the stem of an exercise bike.

Johnson has more than 150 prior convictions, many of them for violence-related offences.

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