Kent: Inmate who attacked staff with self-made weapons sentenced

BBC News

28-03-2025

An "extremely dangerous" inmate who carried out a string of attacks on prison officers with self-made plastic weapons has been sentenced.Aklakar Rahman, 38, repeatedly attacked staff at HMS Swaleside in Kent and high-security Belmarsh jail, south-east London, in September and October 2022, the Old Bailey heard.The court heard Rahman, who has schizophrenia, said he had been directed by voices to carry out the attacks. On Friday, Mrs Justice McGowan handed him a hospital order without limit of time, telling Rahman that psychiatrists say "you are mentally unwell and need to be treated".
The court heard on 23 September 2022, Rahman was detained in the high-security segregation unit at HMP Swaleside over concerns he was trying to "radicalise other inmates to extreme versions of Islam".While he was escorted to a shower, he punched one officer and stabbed another in the forehead with a pen.He then punched a third officer in the stomach and stamped on the foot of a fourth after they went to assist their colleagues.During an attempt to retrieve a self-made weapon, Rahman tried to stab an officer in the neck, jurors had heard.After he was moved to Belmarsh prison, he attempted to kill three prison officers on 23 October 2022.He stabbed one of them in the head and neck, and cut two more officers' necks while they were trying to restrain him, the court heard.
'Inflicting serious injury'
When ordered to open his hand, Rahman was seen holding the bottom of a plastic spoon that had been sharpened, the court heard.In January, a jury found him guilty of four counts of attempted murder.Rahman also admitted a charge of attempted wounding, six attempted assaults on emergency workers and three charges of possessing sharpened pieces of plastic in prison.The judge said: "Rahman is an extremely dangerous offender who has demonstrated a willingness to use unlawful drugs, notwithstanding his clear knowledge that such abuse makes him likely to assault prison officers in particular and other persons."The court heard his attacks were "planned" and he found a piece of plastic, which he spent "considerable time" sharpening into a weapon to "inflict serious injury".
At the time of the offences in 2022, Rahman was serving a life sentence for three earlier attempted murders and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, jurors heard.In the summer of 2017, he attacked one inmate and two officers at HMP Wayland in Norfolk, HMP Lincoln and HMP Wakefield, using improvised weapons to stab at his victims' heads and necks.Rahman had originally been jailed two years previously, in November 2015, and ordered to serve six years and four months for drug offences.He had pleaded guilty at Ipswich Crown Court to two charges of possessing class A drugs heroin and cocaine with intent to supply and one charge of being concerned in the supply of heroin.His condition is currently stable and he is taking his medication.