Two ISIS affiliated prisoners savaged a prison guard while wearing fake suicide belts, a court heard today.

Brusthom Ziamani, 23, and Baz Hockton, 26, set upon Neil Trundle with brutal makeshift weapons fashioned using odds and ends found around HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire, The Old Bailey was told.

The pair tricked him into turning his back to get them a spoon before launching themselves at him and slashing him in the chest, neck and face with lumps of twisted metal with fabric grips, and two improvised knives in what was described as a "carefully planned" attack.

If it hadn't been for the of staff, who heroically ran to help their colleague's aid, the ambush could have been deadly, prosecutor Annabel Darlow QC told jurors.

Ziamani chased nurse Jayne Cowles and prison officer Georgina Ibbotson away and knocked them down before he turned back to Mr Trundle to resume his horrifying assault.

Hockton tried to fend off a male guard and take his baton before being restrained, Ms Darlow continued.

She added the pair were “cold and focussed” - wearing fake suicide belts made from underwear elastic and wires, with Ziamani shouting “Allahu Akbar” and “I have a bomb”.

After they were overpowered by guards officers found a four-page hand-written note in Ziamani’s pocket which revealed his twisted hope of becoming a martyr, the court heard.

Other documents found in both men’s cells also made repeated references to martyrdom, and “the slaying of the enemies of Allah”, Ms Darlow QC told jurors.

Later, after both men were taken to cells to be transferred to different prisons, Ziamani barricaded himself in with furniture and threatened officers with a chair.

Ms Darlow, QC, said: “It is the Crown's case that Brusthom Ziamani and Baz Macaulay Hockton attempted to murder Neil Trundle, a prison officer at HMP Whitemoor for terrorist purposes.”

She added: “When one officer tried to intervene Mr Ziamani opened his jacket, underneath his jacket he was wearing a hoax suicide belt, as was Mr Hockton.

“As he opened up his jacket he told the prison officers ‘I’ve got a bomb.’

"The victim had multiple superficial wounds to his scalp, right arm, and shoulder, a cut above his left eyebrow and a 2.5cm laceration to his right ear and 5cm laceration to the right side of his scalp which was closed with glue.”

Referring to an examination of one of the documents found on Ziamani by a counter-terrorism expert, Ms Darlow said: “In his view, it purports to be written as the final statement of someone about to carry out a suicide or martyrdom attack against non-Muslims.

“The document sets out support for ISIS and calls for participation in suicide attacks against enemies of Islamic State. The statement calls for the restoration of the Caliphate.”

The court heard how one chilling extract from the note read: “Oh don’t hesitate’, oh Knights of Islam. To sacrifice your souls for Allah, depending on your state, Shayteen (satan) tries to put doubts in your minds but ignore him and fulfil your duties to sacrifice your souls for Allah."

Another read: “Our knives seek skin to pierce to allow torrents of blood to flow from you as you have with us.”

A document found in Hockton’s cell read: “May Allah make me and you the best Shouhada (martyrs) very very soon and remove the whispers of Satan from us”, the court was told.

Ziamani, formerly of Camberwell, south east London, and Hockton, formerly of Ramsgate, Kent, each deny attempted murder.

The trial continues.

Reporting by Will Janes

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