Jailer tells of horror knife attack by prisoner
Former prison officer talks for first time about horrific moment murderer almost killed him having vowed to ‘christen this place with blood’
Strangeways officer millimetres from death
A FORMER prison officer who was slashed across the neck by a convicted murderer inside Strangeways has spoken for the first time of his nightmare ordeal.
Inmate Clifton ‘Yankee’ Jeter vowed to ‘christen this place with blood’ before he lunged at Liam Keates with a razor blade melted into a plastic toothbrush.
Liam has now described how he came millimetres from paralysis or death.
Jeter was serving life for the murder of a chauffeur in a ‘honey trap’ robbery plot when he attacked Mr Keates, who was left with an horrific, 10cm-long wound across the back of his neck 2cm deep.
Having spent his childhood in the US, Jeter fell in with New York gangs before being deported to the UK, where he continued to violently offend, in and out of prison.
Six years on from the November 2013 attack, Liam spoke of the traumatic events and his long road to recovery.
“When I was speaking to the doctors they told me I was lucky that I had a thick neck because another half a centimetre and I’d be paralysed,” he said. “Another full centimetre and I would be dead.
“If it had been on the front of the neck, we would have been talking game over.”
Jeter set upon the officers from behind on a corridor.
One prison officer suffered cuts to his cheek, the back of his head, his back and shoulder. The back of Liam’s neck was sliced open and he was also cut in the leg after he went to his colleague’s aid.
Liam, 32, said it took him years to recover. He has now left the service, but said he wouldn’t rule out a return. He was based on the Strangeways special intervention unit, working with the prison’s most troublesome inmates, including Boxing
Day killer Kiaran Stapleton.
Before his attack, Jeter had greased his arms with baby oil or shower gel to make restraint more difficult.
Liam said the day started ‘fairly standard,’ until Jeter had a dispute with a trainer in the gym.
He said the violent inmate ‘wasn’t too happy’ about being told to do a warm-up for 10 minutes.
“He wanted to do whatever he wanted to do,” Liam said.
“It was quite clear that it was an excuse because it was nothing out of the ordinary. That happened. He was then removed from the gym and taken back to his cell. He was then placed behind his door.
“Then he began to carry on with threats. Threats towards ourselves – shouting all sorts of things like ‘I am going to christen this place in blood’ and ‘you will see a murder.’
“I must have had about 10 or 20 death threats when I was working at that place and to be honest, I didn’t consider any of them serious. To me, it was part of the job.”
Officers were wearing PPE when lunch was brought to Jeter’s cell. He was told to kneel down facing the wall with his hands behind his head. Officers then placed a shield at his back so he couldn’t get up.
His food was placed on a table and the officers left the cell.
Liam said an ‘olive branch’ was extended to Jeter, and said he apologised and calmed down in the afternoon.
He said: “He has come out [of his cell] and been searched. He went into the shower. As far as we were concerned, he was just getting a shower. He was in there for quite a while. He came out looking like a bit sweaty then sat on the phone and rang his brother and sat there speaking to his brother. We didn’t put any time limits on him. We let him chat. “When he was done, we were just like ‘we will put you behind your door then come and get you out for your meal.’”
Liam told how Jeter pulled the makeshift blade out from his waistband and attacked his colleague as he opened up the his cell door.
“I just ran towards it – ran towards the danger,” Liam said. “It’s a very weird thing to think of but in that situation, I think all of my colleagues would have done the same thing.”
A loose panel was found in the shower where the weapon had been stashed.
Liam said he coped ‘extremely badly’ after the incident. “At the time I thought I was fine,” he said.
“There was a huge amount of denial involved on my part about what was going on and how I felt.
“Going into a pub – I couldn’t be sat anywhere that wasn’t backed against the wall. If my back wasn’t against the wall I was extremely anxious and paranoid because I was thinking ‘what’s going to happen now? Who’s going to stab me next?’ Eventually I went travelling to Australia. After everything I had been through I just wanted to get away.
“I was in denial about how I felt around it and how it had affected me for probably about a year and a half, with lingering affects for about two years. At the time, I just didn’t want to talk about it. It was really difficult.”
Liam said his colleagues did their best to support him.
“There was support there, but I have to own up, I was very much not willing to talk about it or be part of that process,” he said. “I don’t think you are ever going to get rid of something like that. It’s going to stay with you. It is a life-altering event. I have changed as a person. My outlook on life is different now.”
Jeter was handed a further two life sentences for the attempted murders of Liam and his colleague. He will not be eligible for parole until 2048, when he will be 70, having been branded a ‘highly dangerous individual’ by the judge in his case.
● Liam Keates was talking to Shaun Waldren on the weekly Manchester podcast Junkland.
I have changed as a person. My outlook on life is different now Liam Keates