Gun dealer in prison assault

Jerome Aitcheson, aged 22, was jailed in July 2009 for supplying south London gangs with flare guns which were converted to fire shotgun cartridges.

He and his 25-year-old brother, Ricardo, bought 13 flare guns online and made them capable of shooting 12-bore cartridges. They were then sold to criminals, one of which was used in the murder of 19-year-old Nicholas Clarke.

Aitcheson, of Brixton, south London, was serving his sentence at HMP Rye Hill, run by G4S, near Daventry, when he attacked another prisoner with a makeshift weapon and stole his gold chain.

Alex Bull, prosecuting, said the victim was stabbed in the neck, but Aitcheson denied involvement and told a jury at Northampton Crown Court that he had found him already injured in his cell and had raised the alarm.

However, he was unanimously convicted of inflicting actual bodily harm and theft after a three-day trial.

“It involved extra security being drafted in, with a police officer outside court and three guards with him in the dock.

Judge David Tomlinson, who sentenced Aitcheson to 12 months’ imprisonment to be served consecutively, said: “You struck him three times with a makeshift weapon with a nail protruding from the handle. It has to be spelled out that discipline in the prison system is paramount.”