Confinement of concrete is becoming an increasingly popular technique in strengthening of existing concrete structures as well as in construction of new concrete structures. Cracking of concrete, even within the serviceability limit state is common as the confinement effect becomes significant only once the concrete starts to crack. Detection of the crack initiation and propagation of confined concrete (CC) could lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms governing the behaviour of CC. However, the presence of a confinement jacket presents a challenge in assessing and quantifying the damage within CC structural members. Acoustic Emission (AE) techniques present a promising approach by detecting elastic wave signals generated during cracking and characterising failure events through parameters like AE hit count and amplitude. This study employs AE signals to investigate damage in glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP)-confined concrete cylinders. Five identical GFRP-confined concrete cylinders were prepared and tested under uniaxial compression. An AE data acquisition system, connected to six piezoelectric sensors, was used to capture elastic wave signals from cracking events. GFRP confinement increased the concrete compressive strength by 111% and strain capacity by over 1300%. The AE hit analysis effectively localised cracking and revealed distinct trends in AE hit rates corresponding to specific regions of the stress-strain curve. The three-dimensional internal damage distribution visualised through AE tomography closely aligned with experimentally observed damage at the end of the test, validating the effectiveness of this approach. This study demonstrates the potential of AE technology in advancing damage assessment techniques for CC structures.