Jail staff attacked with cup of tea and pool ball

A POOL ball, bodily waste and even a cup of tea are just some of the things inmates have used to assault prison staff.

Damning figures show the range of items that officers at two Scottish prisons have been attacked with over the last few years.

And now politicians have accused HMP Grampian and HMP Aberdeen prisons in Aberdeenshire of not delivering what they were designed todo.

From 2012 to March this year, there have been 66 assaults on officers working in the prisons, with six people requiring hospital treatment.

Of these assaults, 42 took place at HMP Grampian in Peterhead, which opened in 2014 to replace the old Victorian-era prison.

The last year of the old prison’s use saw an officers pat on and attacked with a pool ball.

The new £140 million facility’s Banff wing has proved to be the most violent with 19 assaults taking place there since it opened.

A residential officer working in the wing had to receive hospital treatment for a minor injury after being attacked with a pen.

A further 15 assaults have taken place in the prison’s Ellon wing, seven in Dyce and one in Cruden.

Now Lewis Macdonald, MSP for north-east Scotland, has hit out at the prison, saying it is not being used as intended.

He said: “Clearly there’s been a lot of public money spent and it’s failed to deliver what it was designed to do.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said: “We take assaults very seriously to our staff and prison officers.

“The figures are evidence that it is a challenge in Scotland.”