Perthshire prisoner’s throat slit with a razor

Jun 30 2009 by Les Stewart, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

VIOLENCE erupted when an inmate delivered “a pre-emptive strike” on another remand prisoner at Perth’s Edinburgh Road jail.

The brutal attack left Kevin Waterston lying in a pool of blood after he was slashed on the face and neck with a home-made weapon – a razor blade welded into a pen.

Blood was seen pumping from a severed artery and prison officers used the victim’s sweater to staunch the flow before he was rushed by ambulance to Ninewells Hospital, Dundee.

He was given a blood transfusion and had stitches inserted in the most serious injury – a seven-eight centimetre long gash which had cut through the artery to the muscle on his left cheek.

Waterson, who lost consciousness at one stage, will be scarred for life as a result of the attack.

He had three separate cuts to his face – one was a superficial laceration five-six centimetres long – as well as a cut to his throat.

The incident led to 21-year-old Paul Foy being jailed for 30 months for what Sheriff Michael Fletcher described as a “vicious attack”.

Solicitor Paul Donnelly said Foy had been on remand at Perth Prison, as was Waterston, at the time of the incident on March 4.

“About a week earlier, Waterson made it clear, via the prison telegraph, that he suspected Foy had been sleeping with his girlfriend during his earlier period of remand.

“He made it perfectly clear he was going to do something about it – he was going to slash Mr Foy.

“Although Mr Foy was no stranger to violence on occasions, he was an amateur compared to Mr Waterston.”

The lawyer said that the victim had a lengthy list of previous convictions, including eight assaults and two assault and robberies.

He was currently on remand in Saughton Prison, Edinburgh, for an armed robbery on a Dundee shopkeeper.

Foy should have reported the threats to the prison authorities but he had been given the weapon by other another “more experienced” prisoner.

It would have been “equally as easy” for Waterson to have obtained one as well, submitted the lawyer.

When he saw Mr Waterston on March 4, he had his hands in his pockets.

“Mr Foy was under no illusions what he thought he might have been carrying in them so he attacked him in a pre-emptive strike.”

After the assault, Foy was put into the segregation unit at Perth and was only returned to the mainstream prison population on June 15.

Foy will serve the 30 months from the end of his present sentence. The weapon was forfeited.