A notorious criminal has been jailed for 12 years after scarring a prison officer for life in a vicious attack with a razor blade.
Convicted rapist David McMillan was not present in court as a jury found him guilty of the serious assault and a judge sentenced him.
Lord Uist earlier ordered McMillan should be removed from the courtroom because of his behaviour and counsel was appointed to represent him in his absence during his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
McMillan (39) had initially defended himself and during a rambling statement said: “There should not be any prisons. There should not be any prisoners.”
He was clearly caught on camera carrying out the attack on officer Neil Cumming at Glenochil jail, near Tullibody, in Clackmannanshire, on October 29 in 2014.
The 51-year-old victim had 53 stitches inserted into a facial wound after the attack. He was scarred and the left side of his forehead was paralysed, leaving him unable to raise his left eyebrow.
Lord Uist said: “This was a premeditated assault as the accused must have extracted the razor blade from it holder within a safety razor. He calmly walked up to the prison officer, lunged at him three times and slashed him on the left side of his face.”
McMillan, a serial sex offender, is currently held in jail under an Order for Lifelong Restriction imposed on him in 2008.
He was originally given a discretionary life sentence in 1996 as a teenager for a brutal assault and rape of a 73-year-old spinster after breaking into the retired teacher’s home in Argyll. The sentence was later quashed on appeal and he was ordered to be detained for nine years.
Following his release McMillan, formerly of Glenearn Road, in Perth, repeatedly returned to sex offending luring and attempting to lure underage children to his home.