Guard Given Vicious Beating over Halal Meal...

An inmate who viciously beat up a prison officer after a row over how his food was cooked has been given an extended jail sentence.

Alec Walker 49, hurled abuse at officer David Larsen after he complained his halal meal had been incorrectly served to him at Forest Bank prison in Salford.

Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard that Walker was escorted back to his cell, where he told the officer: “Come on then. You and me, now.”

Walker, a Muslim, punched the warder hard in the face, knocking him into a washbasin. He then rained down blows on his head with a clenched fist.

Mr Larsen tried to call for help, but he had dropped his radio during the incident in July last year.

Walker shouted ‘I’m going to kill you’ before he was dragged off his victim by other warders.

Mr Larsen suffered a broken nose which later needed surgery, cuts to his mouth and lips, two black eyes, blurred vision, and extensive bruising in the attack.

Walker, in Forest Bank for breach of a previous suspended sentence, claimed he had been assaulted and was forced to retaliate. He later pleaded guilty to a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Paul Hodgkinson, defending, said Walker, who gave his address as Manchester Prison, had spent a large proportion of his life in custody and now realised that unless he changed, he would spend the rest of his days behind bars.

Recorder Raymond Wigglesworth, sentencing him to three years, plus an additional two years on licence, told Walker: “This was a serious offence against an officer acting in the course of his duty.

“Apart from the injuries he suffered at your hands, he considers that his reputation within the prison service has been irreparably damaged.”