A man who left a female prison officer permanently disfigured and injured another during a failed escape from custody has been jailed.

James Demarco had been taken to Perth Royal Infirmary for an x-ray appointment on September 25, 2023 when he made an bid to escape, causing injury to two and attempting to rob a car from a woman in the car park.  

The 34-year-old was handcuffed to a female GEOAmey employee when he caused her to fall halfway down a flight of stairs, and then pinned her to the ground with his knee to her chest and neck and causing her head to strike the floor.

Demarco then demanded his handcuffs be removed and threatened to ‘slit’ the woman’s throat. The second GEOAmey officer immediately uncuffed Demarco before tackling him and putting him in a headlock in a bid to restrain him.

The prisoner then bit the man on his arm, elbowed him on the back of his head and punched him several times before making his escape. He found his way to the car park and found a woman carrying her four-year-old daughter and shouted: “Where is your car? Give me you car keys.”

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When the woman shouted for help, Demarco grabbed her pocket and caused it to rip and ran off without any keys.

 A 999 call was made to police by someone who witnessed the attempted robbery and the accused ran in the direction of Wellshill Cemetery to the north of the hospital where he was found by police and taken to Perth Police station.

In response to a charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice, he replied: “Like that will make a difference to my life sentence, ha ha ha ha.”

Both prison custody offers were taken to A&E at Perth Royal Infirmary and the female officer was left permanently disfigured having suffered a 6cm laceration to her scalp alongside contusions and soft tissue damage.

Her male colleague had bruising to his face and eyes, a minor cut to his eye socket, soft tissue damage and a superficial bite mark on his arm.

Demarco plead guilty to four charges of attempting to defeat the ends of justice, assault to severe injury, permanent disfigurement, assault to injury and attempted robbery at the High Court in Edinburgh.

He was sentenced to 40 months imprisonment and Moira Orr, who leads on homicide and major crime for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said:   “James Demarco is a dangerous individual whose dangerous actions could have had catastrophic consequences. 

“It is only by good fortune that neither of the two custody officers were more severely injured. 

“He then tried to rob an innocent member of the public as she carried her young child, which must have been incredibly traumatic experience for them both.  

“I hope this conviction serves as a warning to others that we take crimes of this nature extremely seriously and will use all the tools available to us to seek justice.”