A negotiator told a court yesterday that a riot at a north-east jail could have ended sooner if more staff had been on site.
Prison officer Kevin Hill accepted the team at HMP Grampian had to call in extra resources from other prisons when the incident unfolded in Peterhead two years ago, which suggested they did not have enough staff on.
Mr Hill was giving evidence at the trial of six former inmates, who are accused of taking part in the riot in May 2014.
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, from Aberdeen, are all accused of banding together to form an “evil mob” at the prison.
The men all admit being held at the prison at the time but deny taking part in the disturbance.
The jury previously heard prisoners drunk on home-made hooch barricaded the gates at the entry to the C section of the Ellon wing with mattresses after tensions between offenders and officers started to rise.
Giving evidence for the third day, Mr Hill was questioned by Mundie’s defence agent Mike Munro about his actions during the incident.
When asked if he thought there were not enough staff at the site to open the gates, he said he could not comment – but admitted he knew staff from other prisons had been called in to assist.
Mr Munro asked: “Does the fact the call was made to other prisons not suggest that the staff numbers were not enough?”
Mr Hill replied: “Yes it does.”
The court also heard that one of the accused, Stewart, had asked to be let out of the block early on during the riot.
At around 10.50pm, he made a hole in the barricade of mattresses which had been placed behind the grille gates.
He asked Mr Hill to get him out as soon as possible.
Mr Hill told the court he had asked Stewart to remove the barricade and ask the group of prisoners behind it to stand back, but they refused to do so.
It was put to him that there may be some hierarchy within the ward, which he agreed with – but refused to comment on Stewart’s position within it.
The trial continues.