An inmate who stabbed into a prison healthcare worker’s neck with a shiv missed her jugular by ‘a fraction’, a court heard.

When he launched the attack, Aaron Gardner, 37, was just two days away from being released from HMP Bullingdon, where he was serving a 22 month sentence for attacking a man with a novelty ‘Nando’s stick’ table marker.

Prosecutor Neil King told Oxford Crown Court on Monday that Gardner had been waiting in the queue for the medical room on February 18, when he was overheard ‘muttering to himself’.

When he reached the front of the queue, he quickly pushed into the treatment room. He grabbed his victim – a prison healthcare worker – and yanked back her ponytail.

Gardner punched down at the woman’s neck with a shiv, a homemade knife made from a shard of pottery taken from a broken sink. He struck her with such force that part of the crockery was left in her throat.

“At first, she didn’t realise she’d been stabbed,” Mr King said. “Two other members of staff watched in horror as they [saw] what the defendant had done.”

He continued to attack the woman, striking her a number of times and managing to stab her in the arm.

One of the prison officers who came in to help had the crockery weapon slashed towards him, although he was uninjured.

The healthcare worker was rushed to hospital, where she was operated on under general anaesthetic.

Mr King told the court: “The stab to the throat missed the jugular by a fraction. This single stab wound could easily have ended her life.”

In a victim personal statement said the attack affected her ‘socially and psychologically’. She had to give up the job she enjoyed and she ‘has struggled to return to her old self’.

The prosecutor added: “On a couple of occasions she was very low and had almost wished that Mr Gardner had accomplished perhaps more than he had.”

Gaolers later found that the defendant had a number of makeshift weapons, including a razor blade in a toothbrush.

Gardner, formerly of HMP Winchester, had been due to stand trial this week accused of attempted murder.

But he pleaded guilty on Monday to an alternative charge of wounding the healthcare worker with intent and attempting to cause the prison officer grievous bodily harm.

Judge Michael Gledhill KC heard the defendant had 68 offences on his record, including for serious violence.

When the attack happened in February he was nearing the end of a jail term imposed by Judge Gledhill, who had imprisoned him for more than 22 months and branded him a ‘one man crime wave’.

Julian Lynch, defending, asked for sentencing to be adjourned for the preparation of psychiatric reports with a view to the judge considering a hospital order. His client was currently in Broadmoor, a secure hospital near Wokingham.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

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