29 June 2024 , 18:20
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A prison officer got £600,000 in compensation for being violently attacked by the Plenty of Fish killer.
The injured guard was taken to hospital after murderer Carl Langdell “very nearly killed him” in a four-minute onslaught. The attack was so bad the 50-year-old has been unable to carry on with his job – but he says Langdell got an easy ride inside. The dangerous con was even given his own rowing machine to carry on working out the day after the vicious assault, the guard says. Langdell was jailed for 26 years in 2016 for killing teacher Katie Locke, 23, who he met on the dating site Plenty of Fish, in a depraved sex attack in a Hertfordshire hotel.
Bedford Prison (PA)Just months before, he had told NHS staff “I will kill someone”, his sentencing hearing at St Albans Crown Court heard. He admitted “violent fantasies” and called himself a psychopath, and an independent review found “systemic missed opportunities” to assess the risk he posed.
In 2016 Langdell was being held at category B Bedford jail, where the prison officer – who we agreed not to name – said he “basically had the run of the prison”. When the officer, who ran a special sex offenders unit, refused to unlock a cell so Langdell could smoke in it, the killer attacked.
Murdered school teacher, Katie Locke, who died after she went on a date with Carl Langdell (Herts Live/BPM MEDIA)The guard said: “He charged me. He smacked me in the face, smashing my eye socket, and threw me against a wall. He started strangling me and nearly broke my neck.” Langdell, 30, died in 2021 after slashing his own neck at maximum security Wakefield Prison.
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The guard, who now works as a postman, had to wait eight years for his settlement. He was awarded £601,000, including a £38,000 redundancy, at Luton County Court. He said: “One thing that really got my goat was that the day after I was attacked, two PE instructors carried a rowing machine across the prison... allowing him to continue his exercise routine.
“It added insult to injury. The reason I am talking about this is I became determined this sort of bad treatment should not happen to anyone else. I was treated very badly and the award I have been given reflects the psychological trauma I went through as well as the physical injuries.” The Ministry of Justice was asked for comment.