Prisoner tells court he heard someone being 'battered'

Peterhead prison as the six-day siege came to an end.

Andrew Walker, 39, a former corporal in The Royal Scots, told the

Court of Session that he recognised the voice screaming in protest at

the blows. It was that of a prisoner named John Devine.

Devine is suing the Scottish Secretary Ian Lang for #30,000 damages,

claiming he was unlawfully injured by the excessive force used by

''servants of the Crown'' who ended the Peterhead prison siege on

October 3, 1987.

Walker told the court that he was first wakened in the early hours of

October 3 by the sound of riot shields. When he looked out the spyhole

of his cell, he saw a group of masked men, not prison officers,

adjusting their equipment.

After they moved away, there was an explosion and the smell of CS gas.

He said he heard the sound of someone being ''battered'' as he was taken

from A hall to B Hall in the prison.

He said he could not see who the person was but he recognised the

voice of prisoner John Devine. Walker told the court: ''He was shouting

that he was being hit on the head.''

Walker said he was serving a life sentence with a recommendation of 30

years for the murder of three soldiers during a robbery at Penicuik in

1985.

He denied a suggestion by Mr Alastair Dunlop, QC, that he was telling

lies because he held a grudge against the prison authorities and had

taken part in other prison riots.

Mr Jackie Stewart, the prison officer taken hostage during the

Peterhead prison siege, earlier told the court of his rescue during the

night by a masked man in black.

Mr Stewart, 63, now retired in Peterhead after 25 years in the prison

service, told the court that he was kept in the prison loft by three

prisoners, Devine, Leggat, and Ralston, during the last days of the

siege.

He said he was not assaulted by John Devine. Devine was detailed to

see that he did not escape from the loft and slept across the entrance.

Mr Stewart said that, on the morning of the rescue, he heard a noise

on the roof.

He told the court: ''There was confusion. There was gas and stun

grenades and someone came in and took me out. It was a figure dressed in

black.

He was wearing a gas mask. He said he did not see Devine offering any

resistance and he did not observe anyone being assaulted.

Later, Prison Nursing Officer Alister Mutch told the court that he had

found 11 wounds on Devine's head and body at the end of the siege. He

said that Devine told him he received them from ''staff'' who came in to

the loft to end the siege.

Lord Coulsfield adjourned the court until tomorrow after Mr Lionel

Daiches, QC, for Devine, told the court that Anthony Busuttil, professor

of forensic medicine, would not be available to give evidence until

then.