Two inmates who tried to kill a prison guard while wearing fake suicide belts have been found guilty of attempted murder.
Brusthom Ziamani, 25, and Baz Hockton, 26, made makeshift bladed weapons and launched a ferocious terror attack on Neil Trundle on January 9.
The court heard they set upon the officer, targeting his vulnerable head, upper chest and neck areas while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’.
Two female staff members were hurt as they tried to stop the assault, with left Mr Trundle covered in blood.
Ziamani had been jailed for 22 years after he was caught with a hammer and knife en route to behead a solider in 2014, in a plot inspired by the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby.
While being held at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire, Ziamani befriended radicalised Hockton, and the pair hatched their terror attack behind bars, the Old Bailey heard.
Ziamani, originally from Camberwell, south London, had denied attempted murder and an alternative of wounding with intent, but admitted assaulting the two women.
He claimed he wanted to be transferred because Whitemoor had become hostile to Muslims in the wake of former inmate Usman Khan’s attack at Fishmonger Hall.
Hockton, originally from Dagenham, who declined to give evidence, had denied attempted murder but admitted wounding with intent.
An Old Bailey jury deliberated for three hours and nine minutes to find them both guilty of attempted murder.
The court had heard the defendants had lured ‘kind and helpful’ Mr Trundle to a store cupboard on the pretext of asking for a spoon.
After they attacked him, Ziamani briefly broke off to punch nurse Jayle Cowles and prison officer Georgina Ibbotson before resuming the onslaught on Mr Trundle.
When another officer approached, Ziamani opened his jacket to expose the fake suicide belt, and said, ‘I’ve got a bomb.’
Meanwhile, Hockton was seen on CCTV footage to charge at another officer before both inmates were restrained.
An examination of the fake suicide belts revealed one had been constructed with a battery and pressurised can and the other was made from boxer short elastic, electrical cable and plastic bottles.
Mr Trundle was left covered in blood, with blood on the walls around him, having suffered cuts to his scalp, arm and shoulder.
Reliving the attack, Trundle, who has 14 years’ prisons experience, said: ‘Before I knew it I was on the floor on my back.
‘I did not see any weapons. I could feel blows coming down on me.
‘I did not realise how bad the damage was to myself until I went to the hospital and looked in the mirror.’
Trundle denied there was any anti-Muslim feeling at Whitemoor over the deaths of two Cambridge students at Fishmonger Hall.
He said staff had been advised on appropriate behaviour after he heard the term ‘raghead’ used to describe Muslims once.
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