Prisoner told psych he wanted to kill someone

THREE days before a prisoner killed his cellmate, he took pleasure in telling a psychologist he wanted to bash someone in the head with half a brick, a Sydney inquest has been told.

Long Bay prison inmate Craig Behr, 24, died of severe head injuries on March 27, 2004 after being beaten by the man he was put into a cell with less than an hour before.

Michael Allan Heatley, a convicted armed robber, pleaded guilty to manslaughter over Behr's killing and was jailed for that crime in 2006.

In an interview with Heatley on March 24, 2004, forensic psychologist Dannielle Matsuo said he told her "he wanted to kill someone" and that he "had homicidal urges".

In the report Ms Matsuo subsequently wrote, read to Glebe Coroner's Court today, she stated Heatley took pleasure in his urges to kill.

"He took pleasure to describe how he wanted to kill someone and how that urge felt," the report stated.

Heatley then remarked: "My little secret's out now."

Ms Matsuo noted her belief that Heatley would not need to be provoked into killing someone and posed a genuine risk to other inmates.

"My opinion was he could not guarantee me, by his thoughts or verbalisation of those thoughts, that he would not follow through with those thoughts," she told the inquest.

Immediately after the interview, Ms Matsuo recommended to officers that Heatley be placed in a one-man cell.

"There was two officers and I verbally informed them that he was not a risk to himself but a risk to others and (should) be put into a one-out cell," she said.

Deputy State Coroner Malcolm McPherson is examining whether it was reasonable for corrective services officers to then lock Behr in the same cell as Heatley.

The inquest continues.