Mansfield prisoner slashed guard's hand with razor blade hidden in his mouth
A prisoner who slashed a guard's hand in a "strumming motion" with a razor blade he'd hidden in his mouth left his victim with a permanent scar and earned himself an extra two years inside, a court has heard.
Jamie Wightman removed the blade from the plastic housing of a prison-issue razor and put it in his mouth when three HMP Ranby officers tried to move him to a permanant cell on March 28, 2023, said Lauren Fisher, prosecuting.
He told the guards they couldn't move him from the induction wing and when they tried to restrain him on the bed he removed the blade and cut the back of his victim’s left hand,
This week a jury at Lincoln Crown Court found the injury must have been caused recklessly or intentionally.
Wightman, formerly of of Bamford Drive, Mansfield, was jailed for ten years and six months after pleading guilty to robbery in 2023.
On that occasion he pulled his 81-year-old victim out of bed and attacked him while demanding cash and valuables.
His victim suffered a fractured eye socket and spine and was also stabbed in the leg during the attack in Mansfield.
His sentence has since been extended by five years, and he also has 21 previous convictions for 46 offences including violence and possessing blades.
William Shelley, mitigating, said Wightman was "effectively protesting" and hadn't smuggled the weapon into prison.
“Adverse experiences as a child” had a knock-on effect on his education and development, and the deaths of father and brother within a short space of time also deeply affected him.
Wightman suffers from diabetes, epilepsy, and an emotionally-unstable personality disorder, Mr Shelley added.
“Prison officers have a difficult job as there are few of them and many prisoners,” Recorder Collingwood Thompson KC told him at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday.
“The courts recognise that in cases of this sort there must be an element of deterrence.
“It is clear to me you decided to disobey a lawful order to vacate your cell to make room for others who were coming into the prison. You deliberated used the razor to thwart the attempt to remove you.”
Wightman, aged 29, now of HMP Lowdham, received a two-year sentence that will be served consecutively.