News Service from House Harris

NSW: Prison fight not part of bikie violence, authorities say

SYDNEY, April 12 AAP - A fight among inmates at a Sydney prison in which five guards were injured was not another incident in the city's escalating bikie war, prison authorities says.

NSW Department of Corrective Services deputy commissioner Ian McLean downplayed the incident, saying media reports (Eds: News Ltd) of 20 Notorious gang members attacking a Bandidos member were exaggerated.

He said the fight during Friday's morning muster at Parklea prison involved seven prisoners, and the victim was not a bikie.

"One person is definitely a member of the Notorious bikie gang and several people attempted to help him in a fight between himself and another person of Lebanese origin," Mr McLean said on Sunday.

"There's no indication to say that this person is a member or affiliated with the Bandidos or any other bikie gang.

"We will continue intel searching, but it could be both are associated with the crime gangs on the outside ... their own criminal activities may have brought them to loggerheads."

He said an investigation into the incident, which left one guard with a broken finger and four with cuts and bruises, was under way and those involved had been segregated.

"I can't see anywhere that procedures have not been followed at this stage," he said.

The Public Service Association (PSA) said the incident highlighted the dangers of the NSW government's push to privatise prisons.

"We know that at the only other private jail in NSW, Junee, there are lower prison officer to inmate ratios and training is less onerous," prison officers vocational branch chairman Matt Bindley said.

But Mr McLean said fights broke out in prisons, and there was no evidence there were more assaults at Junee.

"They certainly are as professional as our officers are in relation to how handle these matters," he said.

Mr McLean said the victim, who reportedly knew the attack was coming and wore three sets of clothes to protect himself against sharpened toothbrushes used as weapons, did not tell authorities he was in danger.

"There's not a report anywhere to indicate that weapons were involved. Even the reports out of the centre by staff don't indicate that," he said.

"I've asked anyone who saw weapons involved to come forward."

The prison fight came to light as police charged two men and a woman allegedly linked to the Rebels outlaw bikie gang over a brawl at a Sydney casino.

Two groups of combatants used glasses and chairs as weapons when the fight broke out at Star City early on Sunday.

When security staff threw them out, the brawl involving 20 men and women continued in the street outside until police arrived just after 1.30am (AEST).

Police from across the city, with help from the riot squad, brought the brawl under control, arresting 10 men and a woman while others fled the scene.

A 26-year-old woman from Shalvey, in Sydney's west, was charged with affray and bailed to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on May 5.

A 20-year-old man from Punchbowl and a 21-year-old from Riverwood, also in the city's west, were also charged with affray.

The pair were granted bail to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on May 4.