Wakefield prisoner found with razor-sharp home-made knife 'planned to stab the governor'

Tristan Roome was serving at HMP Wakefield when he was found with the two home-made knives, fashioned from prison-issue flask handles.

The 29-year-old admitted two counts of possession of an offensive weapon. Leeds Crown Court heard that he voluntarily handed the items over on July 23 last year. They were made from plastic handles that had been “sharpened to a blade” and had a cloth handles wrapped around them for additional grip.

He told officers that he had made the first to stab the governor of the prison, and the second he planned to use to stab a guard. Mitigating, Katherine White said Roome had since been moved to HMP Full Sutton in East Yorkshire, another high-security prison, but he was in a “happier place”.

However, she said: “There’s little I can say, however he has used his time wisely, he has completed drug cases and spending his time in the workshop. He says he is now more stable in prison.”

Sentencing him, the Recorder of Leeds Guy Kearl KC said: “You have a long record for violence, possession of a bladed article and assaulting an emergency worker. You expressed your intention to use the first weapon on the prison governor, and the second on a prison guard. You did not carry them out or attempt to carry them out, but they were sharpened to a blade and were highly dangerous.”

Roome is not expected to be released until July next next, and was given an additional 16 months which will run concurrent to his existing sentence.