A man who fuelled a prison fire with a mattress and a cabinet door has blamed his actions on correctional staff who moved him to a different cell against his will.
Norman Robert Collier is accused of adding fuel to the fires lit during a riot at the Alexander Maconochie Centre in November 2020.
On Monday, Collier told the ACT Supreme Court he only joined the destructive affair because prison staff had placed him in the protected section of the facility.
The 31-year-old has previously pleaded guilty to arson and property damage.
"One day they just come and grab me out of my cell, put me in handcuffs, and take me to protection," he said.
"At the time, I was coming off a lot of drugs and I was mad about what they'd done to me."
Collier admitted he had entered prison in August 2020 with a "fair bit" of drugs on his person and still had "ice, heroin and oxies" in his possession at the time of the riot.
Prisoners in the ACT correctional centre began lighting fires the evening of November 11, 2020, to protest the prison's strict COVID-19 rules.
According to court documents, Collier, wearing a pair of shorts and no shirt, attempted to open a locked fire hose reel cabinet by striking at it with two other prisoners.
He then threw a cabinet door and pieces of fabric into one of the fires, before dragging a mattress out of a cell into the courtyard to further inflame another blaze.
One of the instigators of the prison riot, George George, was sentenced to three years in jail earlier this year for his role in the incendiary event.
According to court documents, Collier only participated in the fire-lighting for a limited time.
Prosecutor Claire Daly admitted the man was considerably less involved than some other prisoners, but argued "some punishment" was still needed.
Collier told the court the injections he'd been receiving to help manage his drug addiction were helping him "100 per cent".
"I haven't had the need to engage in drugs, all I do is train, read books and eat well. That's what I've been doing for the last three years," he said.
The man told the court his life "was doomed" if he could not finish a driving course in prison before his eventual release.
He also said he believed his return to the community would be "better this time" and he was intent on securing a job.
"Listen, I will work anywhere, McDonald's, Domino's, I don't care," he said via audio-visual link from a correctional facility on the NSW South Coast.
Justice Louise Taylor described the NSW learn-to-drive program as remarkable and a "common sense skill that many prisoners could benefit from".
"I don't mean that facetiously," she said, noting no such program existed in the ACT.
The sentence has been reserved for a later date.
