A Dundee murderer faces extra time in jail after he brutally slashed a fellow inmate and wounded a woman prison officer.
Robert (Rab) Stratton injured Gillian Connor with a vicious homemade weapon as she bravely intervened to halt the attack on the prisoner.
A judge paid tribute to her for her actions in trying to stop the assault on Easdale Campbell at HMP Grampian at Peterhead, on September 3 last year.
Lord Armstrong said at the High Court in Edinburgh: “In my estimation she deserves the highest praise for the courage displayed by her.”
Stratton, 44, is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 23 years for murdering Julie McCash and killing David Sorrie after a vigil held for tragic teenager Ralphie Smith in Dundee.
Stratton claimed he attacked Campbell with a toothbrush handle with razor blades melted into it because he branded him a sex offender.
But Lord Armstrong told him: “This was a cowardly and senseless attack which was brutal, violent and sustained.”
The judge said: “Attacks of this sort in her majesty’s prisons are viewed by this court as matters of significant gravity.”
He told Stratton he would have been jailed for seven and a half years but for his guilty pleas.
The judge was shown footage of the build-up to the assault and the attack on Campbell and Ms Connor on September 3 last year at the jail.
Campbell was walking under escort when Strattion suddenly burst from his cell and ran at him repeatedly slashing at his head, neck and torso.
Ms Connor made attempts to intervene and was struck on the hand with the weapon as Stratton continued to assault his target.
Campbell began to bleed from head, neck and stomach injuries but managed to get hold of the weapon and other prison officers brought Stratton under control.
Campbell was found to have a 25cm long wound to his abdomen which was closed with 20 sutures and slash marks on both sides of his neck which were treated with paper stitches.
Ms Connor suffered four wounds to her right hand which were sutured.
Mr Prentice said: “It is expected she will make a full recovery but she will be left with permanent scarring.”
The prosecutor said Campbell’s life was potentially in danger from the attack on him because of the location of the wounds he sustained to his neck and stomach.
Mr Prentice said that when Stratton was interviewed by police he told them that Campbell had called him a “nonce” — prison slang for a sex offender — and he felt he had to react.
The advocate depute said: “He told the police that he did not mean to hurt Gillian Connor and that he was sorry for what happened to her.”
Stratton’s earliest release date before today’s court appearance was 2040 but Lord Armstrong said his latest prison sentence should be served consecutively to the 23-year minimum term imposed on him in 2017.
