A VIOLENT inmate tried to engineer a transfer from a young offenders’ institution (YOI) by carrying out an unprovoked attack on another prisoner.

Dalton Fisher placed pool balls in a sock and began lashing out at the passing prisoner in a recreation area at Deerbolt YOI, near Barnard Castle.

Durham Crown Court heard that one of the balls fell from the sock, but Fisher continued the assault, punching the other inmate to the head as he fell to the floor, near the pool table.

Other inmates, joined by staff, pulled Fisher away to halt the assault, while the 20-year-old victim, who was only a few weeks into his sentence, required treatment for a number of injuries about the face and head.

Chris Baker, prosecuting, said Fisher made it clear that he had just picked a victim at random, and there was no reason for the crime other than his desire to be transferred from Deerbolt.

“The defendant said he picked on him as he, ‘wasn’t his best mate’, but he did admit that he intended to give him, ‘a good battering’,” added Mr Baker.

Twenty-one-year-old Fisher admitted a charge of assault causing actual bodily harm in the first hearing of the case at Durham Crown Court, today (Wednesday June 4).

He was appearing via video link from nearby Durham Prison, where he is now detained.

The court heard that Fisher is serving a seven-year sentence, imposed last July, for his part in what was termed a three-man “torture and terror” ordeal on a 47-year-old man in his home town of Workington, in Cumbria, the previous November.

Frank Dillon, for Fisher, conceded the Deerbolt attack could only be placed in the highest category for offences of assault causing actual bodily harm.

Judge Christopher Prince agreed and sentenced Fisher to 20-months in custody to be added to the seven-year sentence he is already serving.