Prisoners sentence lengthened after inmate attack

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TWO PRISONERS who kept watch while another man stabbed an inmate at Long Lartin Prison have had their sentences lengthened.

Robber Patrick Maughan, 38, and convicted murderer Arthur Pitt-Pladdy, 41, had ten and five years added to their sentences respectively on Tuesday (January 29) at Northampton Crown Court for their parts in the attack which saw another prisoner stab Andrew Randall in both eyes and cut his throat using improvised weapons.

The court heard Maughan and Pitt-Pladdy kept watch for prison officers at the South Littleton prison and also cancelled alarms which were raised meaning the attack, which took place in August 2011, was not discovered for some time.

The man who carried out the stabbing, murderer Jason Jay, is due to be sentenced at Worcester Crown Court later this month after pleading guilty to attempted murder.

Maughan had admitted a charge of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence while Pitt-Pladdy pleaded not guilty.

However, the jury at Northampton Crown Court found him guilty. When the verdict was announced Pitt-Pladdy swore at the jurors and said they had made a mistake.

The court was told that Maughan had an extensive criminal record. While serving a five-year sentence for robbery he attacked another inmate and was given a further prison term of four-and-a-half years.

Pitt-Pladdy was jailed for a minimum of 17 years in 2009 after murdering his girlfriend in Saundersfoot, Wales, when he stabbed her 177 times.

Judge Rupert Mayo said the additional sentences given to Maughan and Pitt-Pladdy reflected their respective roles in the attack.

He said Maughan had been involved in the planning, while Pitt-Pladdy had only become involved moments before the incident.

Victim Randall is serving a life sentence in the maximum security jail after murdering his seven-week-old daughter in 2005.

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