PC Ian Broadhurst killer David Bieber given second life sentence for attack on prison officer while serving time for Leeds murder

Former US marine and bodybuilder David Bieber used a potentially "deadly" homemade pronged iron bar to repeatedly stab Alison Smith in 2017, while serving life for the murder of PC Ian Broadhurst and the attempted murder of two of his colleagues.

PC Broadhurst was shot in Leeds at point blank range on Boxing Day 2003, as he and other officers checked on a suspected stolen car.

A week-long trial at Worcester Crown Court earlier this year was told only good fortune had seen Ms Smith escape life-changing injury or even death, as she used an arm to protect her head at HMP Long Lartin, near Evesham, Worcestershire. Bieber was cleared of the prison officer's attempted murder but convicted at his June 2022 trial of wounding with intent and having an unauthorised weapon.

At trial, 56-year-old Bieber claimed the attack at Long Lartin on August 10 2017 was an attempt to win a transfer back to HMP Belmarsh in London because HMP Long Lartin had cut his painkilling medication.

He appeared at Worcester Crown Court on Tuesday, where the sentencing judge told him the penalty for the "unprovoked" attack meant he would not be eligible for release until he was in his 80s.

Jailing Bieber for life with a minimum six-year term, Judge Nicholas Cartwright told him it had been "a planned attack, with a weapon, on a wholly innocent prison officer".

The sentence was passed after he ruled that Bieber was a dangerous offender, already serving a life sentence for murder. The judge said a recent probation report concluded he was of "very high risk of harm" to prison officers and – if ever released – the public.

He noted that Bieber said the attack was a bid to get transferred to another prison where access to painkilling medication might prove easier.

The judge said the convicted killer had "picked" his moment, "launching an unprovoked attack from behind". He grabbed Ms Smith around the neck, with an arm, and "launched a frenzied attack, punching out at her face with the handhold of the weapon, and trying repeatedly to stab her in the face".

Judge Cartwright added: "The attack has resulted in her suffering a permanent psychological medical condition, having a substantial and long-term effect on her ability to carry out day-to-day activities, and work."

The judge told Bieber – who appeared via video-link from HMP Wakefield – that "a life sentence must follow”.

Fixing the minimum term, Judge Cartwright told him: “The effect is that your overall minimum term will rise from 37 to 43 years."

Bieber, who had a "trusted role" as a cleaner at the time of the attack, had denied attempted murder, an alternative charge of wounding and the charge relating to the weapon.

The former kickboxer was hunted by US police for eight years before he shot PC Broadhurst. The bodybuilding fanatic is also accused of paying a hitman to kill a love rival in Florida in 1995 and would face extradition if he is ever deemed safe to be granted parole in the UK.