A prisoner has admitted stabbing another prisoner in the head 10 times with a pen. He is serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence.
The 45-year-old appeared before Margate magistrates on 9 September. He pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The attack took place on 22 September 2024.
He had first told the victim to keep quiet because he was trying to make a phone call. Soon afterwards, he crept up on the victim and attacked him from behind. The attack wounded the victim in the head and cheek and left him scarred.
Magistrates heard that the victim was heading up some stairs when the attack happened. Prosecutor Lucie Fish said CCTV had recorded the attack. However, a staircase blocked most of the view.
“He used a sharp pen or screw and did 10 stabbing motions; he hit his head and cheek,” she said.
The man is now held at HMP Swaleside. “I would like to say sorry to my victim and the court,” he said as he admitted the offence.
Mitigating, Gordon Crowe told magistrates that his client had said sorry and admitted the offence at the earliest chance. “He did go for the head, and it was with a pen,” Mr Crowe said. He told magistrates the case had taken two years to reach court, and that there had been no police interview. His client accepted he had gone too far, he said.
The man has a previous conviction for a similar offence at the same prison. In that case, he threw boiling water from a kettle at a prison officer. Body-worn camera footage showed the scalding water hitting the officer’s head and jacket. He received a two-year prison term for that offence.
For the pen attack, magistrates imposed a 24-week sentence. It will run concurrently with the term he is already serving. They also ordered him to pay a victim surcharge of £154. He will not have to pay it until 60 days after his release.
