Slash thug in rooftop jail protest
APRISONER held a roof-top protest at his jail costing taxpayers £10,000 – because he had to share his cell with a mouse.
William Palmer (pictured) of Rachub, Gwynedd, was in a demo against cuts to family visits, association time and his living conditions, a court heard.
Palmer claimed he only had mice in his cell for company, and “even a guard said it was not fit for a dog”.
He is serving a sentence of nine and a half years after slashing victim James Rutherford on the face, near an eye, with a kitchen knife in Bethesda last year.
Palmer told him “This is what I do as a living. If you go to the police I will do you in”, slashing him repeatedly in a “sustained, unprovoked and frenzied attack”.
But he claimed conditions in Deerbolt Young Offenders Institution, Co Durham meant he had to “air his grievances”.
He joined fellow prisoner Jonathan Knox on the roof after the pair grabbed a hammer from a workshop to go on a wrecking spree, Emma Atkinson, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court.
A specialist negotiator and five other officers were drafted in from Doncaster to help at the facility near Barnard Castle.
Miss Atkinson said they had caused £10,000 worth of damage by then. She went on: “They appear to have spent their time on the roof sunbathing, wandering around barechested and using a hammer to cause damage.
“The negotiator asked if they were cold because it was by now night-time, and it seems that’s the reason they surrendered.”
The pair, both 21 and from North Wales, admitted a charge of criminal damage and had ten months added to their sentences.
Yvonne Taylor, Palmer, told the court:
“He insists he had been nothing but a model prisoner.”
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