Life sentence for radicalised inmate from Dagenham who attempted to murder prison officer

October 8, 2020

A radicalised prison inmate has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years after trying to murder a prison officer in an Islamist terror attack behind bars. Baz Hockton, who is originally from Dagenham, was jailed alongside Brusthom Ziamani on Thursday, October 8 after being found guilty of the attack at maximum security HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire.

Sentencing Hockton, 26, Mrs Justice May said she was satisfied he was “inspired by extremist beliefs” and had a “terrorist connection”.

She told him: “Your current twisted view of Islam needs to change.” But is it twisted? Or is it the real thing as demonstrated by Mohammed the warlord, that most perfect of men?

Hockton, who has a long history of violence and possessing bladed articles, is three years into a 12-year jail term for stabbing and punching a man in October 2016 and slashing another the following month. He was also sentenced to a concurrent 10-year term for wounding a prisoner with intent to cause grievous bodily harm at Swaleside prison, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, in April last year.

The terror attack is believed to be the first of its kind inside a UK jail, although a homemade IRA bomb was exploded inside Crumlin Road Prison in Belfast in 1991.

Mrs Justice May added: “It is quite plain to me that the defendants must have been planning this terrorist operation for some time, preparing fake suicide belts and multiple weapons for the purpose. These defendants, inside prison, didn’t have ready access to weapons or explosives but did their utmost to plan and execute a terrorist attack with what they could get their hands upon in prison.”