Inmates taunted prison officers and said they would have to “come and get them” if they wanted to end a riot, a court has heard.
Negotiators had told staff at HMP Grampian in Peterhead that the prisoners were keen to end the siege, which broke out on May 13, 2014.
But yesterday, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that when operational officers attempted to bring the incident to a close, some of the negotiators began acting in an “aggressive manner”.
Robert Gill, 26, from Newmachar, Stephen Sim, 31, from Stonehaven, Michael Stewart 31, from Forfar, Dominic Jordan, 30, from Merseyside, Sandy Mundie, 30, from Aberdeen and 33-year-old George Thomson, also from Aberdeen, accept being in custody at the time, but deny taking any part in the disturbance themselves.
Gordon Roy, a unit manager with HMP Edinburgh, travelled to the north-east to help deal with the disturbance and took on the role as operation support team leader.
Yesterday, he said that once at the jail they had hoped to implement an end plan where the inmates would come out of the section, but the inmates had reacted negatively.
Mr Roy went on to say that he heard his colleague James Holmes telling the inmates that if they wanted to come out to let them know.
When asked what the reaction was, Mr Roy said: “There was abuse, saying if you want us to come out you will need to come in and get us.”
He said when they moved into the section to try and end the incident, there were some inmates who were acting in an “aggressive manner”.
He went on to say there was a “torrent of abuse”.
When asked what was said, Mr Roy replied: “It was along the lines of, ‘we told you you had to come in and get us.'”
He went on to say that there were one or two inmates with sticks or poles that were using them to gesture towards the officers. The trial continues.
