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A terrorist jailed for planning an attack inspired by the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby has been convicted of attempting to kill a guard in a maximum security prison.
Brusthom Ziamani, who was jailed for 22 years after being caught with a hammer and knife on the way to decapitate a soldier in 2014, attacked Neil Trundle with a radicalized prisoner.
The couple also injured two female staff members who tried to help their colleague.
Trundle said his colleagues saved his life after the attack.
Trundle said his colleagues who rushed to help him saved his life that day.
Ziamani, 25, planned the terrorist attack with Baz Hockton, 26, after meeting at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire.
They used makeshift knives and used fake suicide belts when they carried out the plan on Jan.9, the Old Bailey heard.
The defendants lured Mr. Trundle, described as “friendly and helpful”, to a store closet, allegedly to get them a spoon.
They then pounced on him, targeting his head, upper chest, and neck area shouting “Allahu Akbar”.
The guard was covered in blood, with blood on the walls around him, having sustained cuts to his scalp, arm and shoulder.
Ziamani briefly interrupted himself during the attack to beat up nurse Jayle Cowles and prison officer Georgina Ibbotson.
When another officer approached, he opened his jacket to expose the fake suicide belt and said, “I have a bomb.”
The aftermath of Brusthom Ziamani and Baz Hockton’s attack on prison guard Neil Trundle
Hockton was seen charging another officer in CCTV graphic footage before both inmates were pinned down.
One of the “suicide belts” was made of battery and pressurized can, and the other of short boxer elastic, electrical cable and plastic bottles.
Following the verdicts, Mr. Trundle, who has 14 years of experience working in prisons, said: “I thank those colleagues of mine who risked their lives coming to my aid on that terrible day.
“If it weren’t for your bravery and instant response, I am convinced that I would not be here today.”
Reliving the attack, Mr. Trundle said: “Before I knew it, I was on the ground on my back.
“I didn’t see any weapons. I could feel blows falling on me. I didn’t realize how bad the damage was until I went to the hospital and looked in the mirror.”
Whitemoor is a maximum security prison
Commander Richard Smith, head of the Met Counter-Terrorism Command, said: “This was a calculated and horrific attack on two prisoners who had one goal: to try to assassinate prison staff.
Ziamani, originally from Camberwell, south London, had denied the attempted murder and the intentional injuries, but admitted to assaulting the two women.
He claimed that he wanted to be transferred because Whitemoor had become hostile to Muslims in the wake of former inmate Usman Khan’s attack on Fishmonger Hall, in which two Cambridge students were killed.
Hockton, a native of Dagenham, who declined to testify, had denied the attempted murder but admitted to intentionally injuring himself.
Prosecutors said that Ziamani’s plan to become a “martyr” was written in handwritten notes.
Hockton, originally from Dagenham, left a note that said: “I can not bear anything in uniform and if I see a policeman on the wing, I stick a point in the head like a unicorn. (sic).
The couple is due to be sentenced on Thursday.
