Strangeways lifer slashed prisoner’s throat in showers
ATTACK OVER MISSING ROSARY BEADS
A DANGEROUS lifer plotted to murder a Strangeways inmate – because he suspected him of stealing his rosary beads.
David O’Brien, 39, lured victim Dean Rawlinson to the shower before slashing his throat with a makeshift weapon – a toothbrush with a razor blade melted into it.
The victim survived the attempt to kill him but remains deeply traumatised.
“I will never feel safe in prison again. I have thoughts that my cell mate will stab me in my sleep,” Rawlinson, 27, said in a statement.
The attack came months after O’Brien cut another man’s throat in another prison – for which he was sentenced to life, with a minimum of 86 months to serve before parole can be considered.
Now, for the attack on Rawlinson, he has been sentenced to life in prison again – this time with a minimum of 21 years and four months to serve.
After the attack on Rawlinson, O’Brien said: “Yes I cut his throat. He was stealing from me.”
Convicted robber O’Brien is now one of a handful of prisoners across the country who have no contact with other inmates. At the time of the attack, he was ‘paranoid’ that his lost rosary beads had been stolen, his sentencing hearing was told.
The court heard that on October 13 last year, while serving at HMP Manchester, also known as Strangeways, O’Brien had a ‘normal’ conversation with Rawlinson, who had given him a cigarette.
O’Brien then asked Rawlinson if he wanted to share the cigarette, and because smoking is banned on the landing, suggested they move to the showers out of sight of the camera.
Rawlinson sat down before O’Brien lunged at him with the blade and cut his throat. But the victim was able to kick his attacker to knock him off balance and flee.
As he ran away he noticed O’Brien brandish another improvised weapon, a four-inch spike with cloth wrapped around it as a makeshift handle.
Fearing the repercussions of informing on another prisoner, Rawlinson initially told prison officers that he had suffered a cut while shaving.
But they saw he had suffered a significant injury and gave first aid before he was taken to hospital.
Rawlinson suffered a 12 cm cut which required 16 staples to close. He now complains of suffering posttraumatic stress disorder, nightmares and flashbacks.
O’Brien pleaded guilty to attempted murder but refused to leave his cell for sentencing. He will only be released if the Parole Board deem it is safe to do so. In April this year he was sentenced for attempting to murder Peter Harris, 35, at HMP Garth in Leyland, Lancashire, causing a 20cm cut to the side of his neck.
The court heard Harris was lucky to survive the attack, and was only saved by quick-thinking prison staff and another inmate who used a T-shirt to stem the bleeding. After the incident O’Brien said: “I wanted to kill him then I changed my mind. I thought I would give him one across the face.
“Then I thought **** it, I’m going to kill him. I’ll kill him, I’ll kill all the others as well.”
Before the two attacks on prisoners, O’Brien was serving time for his part in a cash-in-transit robbery, in which he brandished a knife and £15,000 was stolen.
Dominic D’Souza, defending, said O’Brien has spent almost all his adult life in prison, adding: “He is utterly institutionalised, and is totally dysfunctional outside a prison environment.”
The court heard O’Brien, of no fixed address, has a personality disorder which leaves him unable to learn from previous mistakes and with a reduced threshold for aggression.
He denied being a violent person, instead saying he had ‘stopped caring.’
Sentencing, Judge Michael Leeming said: “He (O’Brien) is plainly a very dangerous individual. This was a planned and premeditated attack with an intent to kill.”