HMP Whitemoor: Men deny prison officer attempted murder

Whitemoor inmate Brusthom Ziamani denies the attempted murder of a prison officer

Two men have denied the attempted murder of a prison officer at a high security jail.

Brusthom Ziamani, 24, and Baz Hockton, 26, pleaded not guilty via video-link at the Old Bailey.

They are accused of donning fake suicide vests and using improvised weapons during an attack in January at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire.

The pair pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of wounding the officer with intent.

But prosecutor Annabel Darlow QC said the guilty pleas were not acceptable to the Crown.

She said there would need to be a trial on the attempted murder count, which the prosecution alleged had a terrorist connection.

Ziamani also pleaded guilty to two further assaults on a female nurse and a female prison officer, with the latter causing actual bodily harm, during the same incident on 9 January when four officers and a nurse were injured, the court heard.

The maximum security jail houses more than 400 inmates

The defendants were both remanded in custody to appear for trial on 21 September.

HMP Whitemoor houses more than 400 Category A and B prisoners on three wings, including a number of the highest-risk inmates.