Man found guilty of assaulting fellow in-mate

Sunday 24 June 2018

A man has been found guilty of assaulting another inmate during a previous stint in prison, and will be sentenced in July on three further charges.

Kalan Millar, 19, will not be sentenced until July as he is still being investigated on charges of criminal damage and two further assaults on police officers. Those charges are due to come before the Magistrates court then.

Millar was found guilty of this first charge of assaulting a fellow inmate in a Magistrates Court trial last week. The court heard that Millar had been in J wing at Les Nicolles prison playing table tennis with a few other men on 7 September 2017.

A conversation started just before lunch was served where a fellow inmate asked him to stop spreading rumours about him. Following that conversation a more heated argument occurred which ended in Millar dropping his lunch plate and hitting the other man. As this turned into a scrap in the corridor of the wing, officers ran to the scene to separate the two men.

During the separation process, two witnesses reported that Millar leant his head back and moved it forward with as much force as he could to headbutt the other man. After the two men were finally separated Millar was taken to a cell and the other man was assessed for injuries, where it was noted he had received a cut to the eye and bruising.

The prosecution said that Millar had headbutted the other man which had caused the injury, while in his defence Advocate Steel said that Millar had not purposely head butted the other man and that connection had occurred during his struggle whilst being restrained. They also said that the injury had been caused by the initial punch Millar had laid on the other man and not any joining of heads. It was further stated that he had laid this punch as he had felt threatened by the taunts from behind him.

In returning his verdict Judge Graeme McKerrell said that this was not an act of self defence and that in an environment like the prison if he had felt threatened he should have told an officer, whether that would have made him a "grass" or not.

He went on to say: "There are differences in all the accounts, but my conclusion is that this was a deliberate attempt at a headbutt, it matters not if the injury sustained was from the headbutt or the initial punch what matters is that he sustained injuries at the hands of the defendant."

As the Judge found him guilty of the charge and prior to sentencing the prosecuting officer made the court known of three further charges outstanding; one of criminal damage and a further two assaults on police officers.

Millar was released on bail pending these matters coming to court and was given conditional bail not to go to Le Fevre Street in relation to the criminal damage charge. He will appear again on 18 July 2018.