A “highly dangerous” inmate tried to kill five prison officers with homemade weapons including a sharpened plastic spoon, a court has heard.
Aklakar Rahman, 38, allegedly repeatedly attacked staff at HMS Swaleside in Kent and high-security south London Belmarsh jail in September and October 2022.
On Monday, he went on trial charged with 20 offences, including five of attempted murder and six attempted assaults on an emergency worker and possessing sharpened pieces of plastic.
Prosecutor Alistair Richardson told jurors Rahman had a history of using improvised weapons to try to kill prison officers by stabbing at their heads and necks.
At the time of the alleged offences, the defendant was serving a life sentence for three earlier attempted murders and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, he said.
They related to incidents of violence at HMP Wayland, HMP Lincoln and HMP Wakefield in the summer of 2017, jurors were told.
Mr Richardson said: “This highly dangerous man does not leave it to anybody else to work out what he is doing. He has repeatedly said that he wants to kill prison officers. Both before the attacks, at the time he attacks, and afterwards.
“He wants to kill prison officers, who he sees as ‘kuffar’, a derogatory term for non-Muslims.”
On September 23 2022, the defendant had been detained in the high-security segregation unit at HMP Swaleside over concerns he was trying to radicalise other inmates to “extreme versions of Islam”, the court was told.
He was being escorted to a shower when he allegedly punched officer Lee Lassman in the face, shouted “Allahu Akhbar” and stabbed officer Ludovic Barbier in the forehead with a pen.
As he was restrained, the defendant allegedly continued to shout, stamp, kick and try to bite officers, jurors were told.
He went on to allegedly punch officer Dale Marsden in the stomach and stamp on officer Ross Greig’s foot after they went to help their colleagues.
Giving evidence, Mr Lassman said Rahman had “such a determination to injure myself and other officers” that the prison officer went on to ensure his cell was completely emptied following the alleged incident.
He described Rahman as “extremely unpredictable”, recalling instances when he would stop walking while being escorted “for no reason and just stare at you” and then “often laugh or smile at you in an unnerving way” when he was questioned about his actions.
“I felt like we were always waiting for something to happen,” the prison officer said.
But Mr Barbier told the court while giving evidence that he initially found Rahman likeable, saying someone “so polite and gentle turning on you the next day is very difficult… for future situations because you feel like you’ve misread the situation completely”.
He said he heard Rahman say “multiple times” that he wanted to kill prison officers.
Mr Barbier also said he saw Rahman declining his prescribed medication while in the unit and noted a “decline in his presentation”, adding that “the way he was looking at us was becoming more intense”. The court heard Rahman suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
On September 24 2022, Mr Lassman carried out a welfare check and found Rahman standing naked in his cell holding a three-inch piece of sharpened plastic, jurors heard.
Mr Lassman said Rahman told him he was “going to stick it in my f****** eye” and that he was going to “stick it in your neck”.
During an attempt to retrieve the weapon, the defendant tried to stab officer Simon Lowman in the neck, it was alleged.
Rahman was moved to Belmarsh prison where he allegedly tried to kill prison officers Elizabeth Franklin, John Clark and Robert Salter on October 23 2022, the court was told.
The officers had gone to his cell to escort him to get his lunch when the defendant threw his bin at two of them and ran towards officer Franklin shouting “death to kuffar” and stabbing at her head and neck.
The defendant also cut the other two officers’ necks amid attempts to restrain him, jurors were told.
On being ordered to open his hand, the defendant was seen with the bottom of a plastic spoon that had been sharpened, the court heard.
A senior officer who ran to see what was going on allegedly heard Rahman shout: “I’ll kill you all. Die kuffars”, while still holding a weapon in his hand.
In a note, the defendant later explained he was angry with the prison established and had “lost it” and attacked prison officers who he felt were mocking him, jurors were told.
In a police interview, Rahman said in a statement that he did not intend to kill anyone, that he had been trying to provoke the officers and that his mental health was deteriorating.
The defendant has denied the charges against him at the Old Bailey trial before Mrs Justice McGowan continues on Tuesday.
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