A VIOLENT Glenochil inmate has been given an additional six months inside after admitting to assaulting a fellow inmate last year.

John Etchells (21) appeared from custody on Monday (27 April) charged with headbutting Christopher MacCallum and repeatedly punching him on the head and body.

The incident took place inside the prison’s Harviestoun Hall at around 4.10pm on 1 December 2014.

The complainer in the assault did not sustain any injuries as a result of the attack.

Etchells lashed out at his fellow inmate in relation to an earlier exchange between the two that day.

The court heard that the accused’s grandmother had recently passed away and that MacCallum made a joke about ransacking her home.

Etchells’ defence agent Elspeth Fox said: “The accused and the complainer were in the same work party and my client was discussing the fact that he was going to go to his grandmother’s funeral.

“The complainer then said that, as he was getting out soon, he would pay her house a visit and re-appropriate items from her house – that he would break in and steal them.

“This left him stewing and he became quite emotional about it. He then confronted the complainer in the manner libelled.

“He realises that it was not acceptable to act in this manner but there was a significant element of being provoked, albeit prior to the actual offence took place.” Etchells is currently serving a long-term sentence after being convicted of two stabbings in Dundee as a teenager.

He was sent to HMYOI Polmont for knifing a man in October 2012 and later carried out a similar attack in April 2013, defying six separate counts of bail.

He had been serving a combined total of three years and five months when he was told he would serve an additional three years and nine months for the second attack.

On Monday, the court heard that Etchells had an earliest possible release date of 22 March 2018, before Sheriff Richard Clark imposed a further six months for the Glenochil assault.

He said: “A significant record has been placed before the court today in which you have three previous convictions for assault.

“Whatever provocation there may have been, it does not excuse your actions. I am satisfied that only a custodial disposal is appropriate here.” l Meanwhile, another HMP Glenochil inmate has been handed a further eight-month prison term after being caught in possession of a plastic knuckle duster by guards.

John Young (25) is currently serving a ‘lengthy’ prison term at the Clacks jail and is not likely to be released before 2019.

He was sent up at the High Court in Edinburgh in February 2014 after admitting a charge of trying to rob a convenience store in Fife with a machete.

He appeared at Alloa Sheriff Court on Monday charged with possession of a weapon while in HMP Glenochil on 10 December 2014.

Depute fiscal Claire Bremner said he was stopped by warders at 12.10pm in the afternoon and before a search was carried he was asked if he had ‘anything on him that he shouldn’t have’.

Young immediate admitted to have the weapon in his sock. He said he received the weapon from another inmate but refused to give them any names.

In mitigation, his defence agent Jaclyn Meisel said: “It was, for him, a stupid decision and he appreciates that his behaviour was totally unacceptable.” Sheriff Richard Clark then handed Young an additional eight months inside, reduced from 12 months due to his early plea.