Saw-obsessed killer on maximum-security wing at HMP Wakefield able to knife two officers in shower
A dangerous killer who was obsessed by the slasher movie, Saw, was able to stab two prisoner officers, despite being on a maximum-security wing at HMP Wakefield.
Mathew Tinling, who is already serving three life sentences, was able to hide a knife as he took a shower, then plunged into one officer’s neck, and another’s arm.
He was handed another life sentence after admitting two counts of Section 18 GBH with intent, with the judge at Leeds Crown Court describing him as a “lethal danger to anyone in the prison estate”.
The 38-year-old was originally jailed in 2013 for killing a man in London after becoming fascinated by the Saw movie franchise. The premise of the movies involves victims being forced to play gruesome games to save their own lives.
He was given a life sentence, but during his time in prison he has continually attacked other inmates and officers, slashing at them with knives. As a result he was given two more life sentences and will serve a minimum 47 years, meaning he would not be eligible for parole until 2062.
Due to his violent tendencies, for the past four years he has lived in the close-supervision centre at Wakefield prison that houses the 14 most dangerous inmates.
Up to six officers are required to move each prisoner out of their cell for exercise and shower, they are searched continually and are not permitted to mix with other inmates.
At around 8am on January 23 last year, Tinling was being escorted for a shower but was complaining about his exercise time being altered and demanding he speak with the officer in charge.
He was permitted to take his shower and drew the shower curtain across as five officers waited for him.
But once he had finished he lunged at the first officer, stabbing him in the bicep with a 7cm blade.
As a second intervened, he was stabbed in the neck before the remaining officers were able to pin Tinling down and remove the knife from his hand.
The two officers were taken to hospital but only suffered superficial wounds.
Prosecutor Michael Collins said it remained unclear how Tinling was able to get the knife, with one possibility being that he had somehow secreted the knife in the shower area beforehand.
Mitigating, Victoria Smith-Swain said that Tinling, who has since been moved HMP Belmarsh in London, had offered early guilty pleas and that a new life sentence was not necessary, given that he could not be paroled until 2062 at the earliest.
But Judge Robin Mairs gave him another life sentence, with a minimum of three years to serve. He said it would run consecutively to his existing sentences, so he would not begin serving this latest sentence until 2062.
He told him: “There has been no lessening in your intention to cause really serious harm or to kill.
“You are potentially lethal and a real danger to anyone in the prison estate you may encounter, officers or inmates.”