WELL , IT'S MAKES A CHANGE FROM ' VOICES ' ( the JUDGE GODDARD ATTACK story continues ) )

Man who hit judge blames 'machine'

By Sue Clough, Courts Correspondent

DAILY TELEGRAPH 19/06/2001

 

THE man who attacked a judge at the Old Bailey was carried from the dock by four prison officers yesterday after claiming a "machine" had made him do it.
Three days after he leapt from the dock, hurled a water carafe towards the 64-year-old-judge and punched her repeatedly in the face, causing a black eye and a head wound needing five stitches, the man was brought back to the Old Bailey.
This time he appeared before Judge Peter Beaumont, handcuffed and flanked by four prison officers with two policemen standing outside the dock. The man is charged with murder. Rock Tansey, QC, his counsel, told yesterday's pre-trial hearing that he could not object to the application from the prison guards for handcuffs "in view of what happened the other day".
After being remanded in custody at the end of the brief hearing, the stockily-built man would not leave the dock to go to the cells below. He claimed a machine in Belmarsh prison was torturing him and "caused the attack on the judge the other day. I am refusing to leave the dock until this machine is stopped". The prison officers picked him up and carried him from court.