Paracetamol - a basic medication to ease COVID-19 symptoms - was not provided to an infected prisoner who was "just ... locked away" in a single-person cell, a judge has been told.
Brendan Leigh Russell, a NSW body modifier awaiting sentencing for manslaughter, sobbed on Monday as he detailed his past 11 weeks in custody in Sydney prisons as the Omicron wave took hold.
"I feel isolated and ... constant anxiety," he told his NSW Supreme Court bail hearing.
"When I had COVID, they don't give you Panadol or anything, so I was just in pain and locked away in a room."
Some prison food also left him "on the toilet with diarrhoea", his anti-depressant medications were irregularly provided and contact with his wife and relatives had recently been limited to phone calls, he said.
"There are no in-person visits ... because of short staffing throughout the jail - it's complete shutdown," he said from Parklea prison.
"Around 80 inmates are in the one yard so it's a big line-up for the phone calls."
Russell was taken into custody in mid-November after a District Court judge found him guilty of three crimes committed against body modification clients between 2015 and 2017.
The final procedure resulted in a woman's death, with the court finding Russell deterred her from seeking medical attention after the site of a silicon snowflake implant became infected.
Russell should be released ahead of his sentence, scheduled for March 7, to allow the Omicron wave to pass, his lawyer submitted on Monday.
"(The conditions) are very harsh, as is the impact they are having on his mental health," Michal Mantaj said.
"He understands he will be returning to custody, the hope is the conditions in custody will improve (by then)."
Opposing release, the Crown submitted only five weeks remained until sentence and the tougher conditions experienced were a result of prison authorities responding to the pandemic.
"They are matters out of the control of the authorities," Katherine Jeffreys said.
"It does appear the peak of the latest outbreak ... (is) arriving. Whilst there is still uncertainty about what the future will bring, it appears to be improving."
Justice Michael Walton will deliver his decision on Monday afternoon.
All parties agree it is nearly inevitable Russell will be sentenced to further jail time, come March 7.
Russell, who pleaded not guilty to each charge, had been considered a "god" by his last victim, who received a silicon snowflake hand implant in his Central Coast parlour two weeks before her death.
Trial judge Helen Syme found a substantial cause of death was sepsis stemming from an infection that started in the hand.
Russell is also awaiting sentencing for two earlier crimes, having left a victim of 2015 female genital mutilation unable to use tampons or wear underwear without discomfort and a victim of a 2016 "clearly dangerous" abdominoplasty or "tummy tuck" with significant scarring.
