Killer battered female prison guard after being dropped as goalie for jail football team
Samuel Petto, 45, claimed he attacked guard Tara Jackson after being red-carded from his role in the closed doors kick-about. He lunged towards Miss Jackson who had gone to his cell with nurses amid fears he had taken illicit substances.
Petto appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and admitted targeting her at maximum security HMP Shotts, Lanarkshire.
Fellow killers Mohamud Mohamud, 41, and Paul Watson, 39, also appeared to admit assaulting staff at the prison between May and October last year.
Depute fiscal Jack Muir told the court Petto had become volatile in his cell. He said: "Prison officers attended at the cell of the accused along with NHS staff to check on the accused who was believed to be under the influence.
"The complainer Jackson and another officer entered the cell and he became aggressive towards them and lunged towards the complainer and grabbed her by the belt and shirt.
"The accused thereafter began to punch the prison officer on her face and head area and then pulled her to the ground which caused other staff to enter which allowed the complainer to leave the cell.
"She suffered bruising on her left eye and the back of her head, pain and limpness to the right knee, cuts to her head and neck area and swelling to her right hand and wrist."
Petto, who represented himself in court, claimed he had become angry after being told he was not allowed to play football.
He said: "I'd organised the football and they were getting people for football but said I wasn't going. So I started shouting trying to get my door open so I could go and play because I'm the goalie.
"They came back with nurses saying I was under the influence but I wasn't taking drugs. I just wanted to get to the football and then they all grabbed me and were trying to pull me by the head and that was when the other screws came in and this melee happened.
"I don't know why I wasn't allowed to go to football."
Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!
Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today.
You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team.
All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in!
If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'.
We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like.
To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Watson lashed out at Miss Jackson in a separate incident while Mohamud assaulted guard Michael Corrigan during a trip to University Hospital Wishaw.
Lorna Clark, defending Mohamud and Watson, said they had struggled with addiction behind bars and had no recollection of the incidents.
Sheriff Louise Gallacher handed Petto a year while Mohamud and Watson were given six months. All were told the sentences would run alongside their current terms for murder.
Petto murdered a woman in an explosion which he caused to cover up the killing of a flatmate in March 2003 and was jailed for a minimum of 18 years.
Machine gun killer Mohamud, who previously boasted about having two X-Boxes in his cell, was jailed for 25 years after killing a drug gang rival in Edinburgh in 2013.
Watson was jailed for 20 years after being convicted of murdering a man with a pitchfork and knife in 2014.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
3 hours ago
- Daily Record
Scots woman missing from Glasgow for three days
Scots woman missing from Glasgow for three days She is described as around 5ft 2in tall, of slim build, with brown hair that she usually wears in a pony tail. Concerns are increasing for a missing Scots woman with split earlobes after she was reported missing from a Scots city days ago. Police are appealing to the public after carrying out extensive efforts to trace Colette Docherty, who vanished from the city centre of Glasgow on Friday. The 37-year-old was last seen in the Kilmarnock Road area of Shawlands on, 25 July, and is known to frequent Glasgow city centre near Queen Street Train Station and around the Clydeside. She is described as around 5ft 2in, of slim build, with brown hair that she usually wears in a ponytail. She usually wears leggings and a crop top with a cardigan and has split ear lobes. Sergeant Caroline McGrath said: 'Extensive enquiries have been carried out since Colette was reported missing on Thursday, 6 August and we are now appealing to the public for help. "Concerns area growing for Colette's welfare and we are keen to make sure she is safe and well." Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. She added: 'I would urge anyone who has seen her, or who has any information about where she might be, to contact us as soon as possible.' Article continues below Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident number 1128 of 6 August, 2025.
ITV News
3 hours ago
- ITV News
Sturgeon's memoirs: The book that has got everyone in Scottish politics talking
A little more than a decade ago, I watched Nicola Sturgeon headline a venue usually reserved for rock bands. Working for The Courier newspaper at the time, I saw the then soon-to-be first minister provoke rapturous applause from a sold out Caird Hall in Dundee. Like a gig, there was merchandise. T-shirts made to look like vintage Scotland football tops with ' Sturgeon 15' on the back. Yet this was all just part of the warm up for her being the star attraction for a sold-out show in Glasgow's vast Hydro arena. She seemed untouchable. Even many of her opponents admired her. So why is she now one of the most divisive politicians in the country? The answer to that is in part answered by the content – and the reaction to it – that has been serialised in her upcoming memoirs. The book is called Frankly. Given the top-down, secretive approach Sturgeon's critics say she took to government, that alone has drawn some mirth amongst Holyrood mischief makers. Remember the furore about her deleting all of her WhatsApp messages from during the pandemic? In 2019, I revealed in The Times, to much consternation from her allies, that Sturgeon had been using an SNP email address for government business. At the time concerns were raised that officials might have been using private emails and social media accounts to avoid scrutiny and circumvent freedom of information requests. Official documents had to be dragged from the Scottish government like blood from a stone when a Holyrood committee was investigating the unlawful handling of sexual misconduct allegations against her predecessor Alex Salmond. Salmond, who died last year, was cleared in court of any criminal activity and claimed there was a conspiracy orchestrated against him by Sturgeon and people close to her. In extracts of the book released in the Sunday Times, Sturgeon calls this 'a fabrication, the invention of a man who wasn't prepared to reflect honestly on his own conduct'. She also floated the theory that Salmond himself leaked the allegations to the Daily Record so he could play the victim card. Unsurprisingly, this latest twist in the falling out of two of the UK's biggest politicians of the last 20 years has both reignited Scottish politics' very own Greek tragedy onto the front page of the papers and enraged Salmond's allies. It also appears to be, charitably, a stretch. As a declaration of interest, I wrote a book about the Salmond/Sturgeon fallout with David Clegg, who broke that story in the Daily Record. His account of how he received the document outlining the complaint against Salmond – it was delivered anonymously to the newspaper's office – is set out in Break-Up and on quite a few occasions we have speculated between ourselves about who might have sent it. We have our suspicions but the truth is that only the sender and anyone they told will know for sure who was behind the leak. It sums up a lot of the criticism of Sturgeon, particularly in recent years: great at garnering headlines, especially when it involves undermining an opponent, not very much of substance beyond that. Nicola Sturgeon: My arrest was 'horrific' and part of me 'closed down' Nicola Sturgeon opens up about sexuality and 'mental torture' of arrest in book Her allies would of course dispute that assessment. They would correctly be able to point to a series of election wins that surpass her peers; they would highlight policies like the Scottish child payment, which is widely seen as helping the poorest kids in society; they would say that just having a strong, impressive female leader with some of the best communications skills in politics is important to show women they can break the glass-ceiling. This may be true but plenty of promises lay broken. The attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils has barely budged despite Sturgeon's promises; NHS waiting lists including those in the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway continue to be too long by ministers own admission; for independence supporters there has been no move on the constitutional question; rural Scotland has felt like an afterthought to an Edinburgh-based government that has often felt increasingly central belt focused; and a new culture war has opened over people's gender. In her interview with ITV, Sturgeon admitted to some blame for the latter but still floundered when asked about Isla Bryson, the rapist who self-identified as female and was transferred to a women's prison. It is possible that the most revealing piece of information to have emerged from all the book extracts and interviews so far is Sturgeon saying he has "always loved London' as she teased the potential for a move to the city that has often been shorthand for everything the SNP sees wrong with the United Kingdom. Perhaps Frankly will prove to be insightful and revealing. Right now it looks like one final defence of the years that followed Nicola Sturgeon's glory days. Years that Scotland has largely moved on from.
Daily Record
3 hours ago
- Daily Record
One dead in Pittsburgh factory explosion as workers trapped under rubble
A major rescue mission is underway at the US Steel Clairton Coke Works plant near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which exploded and left several people injured and trapped under rubble One person has died, several people have been left injured and others are trapped under debris following a huge explosion at a steel plant in the US, with emergency services scrambling to the scene. The Clairton Coke Works plant in near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been engulfed in heavy smoke as the major rescue operation continues. The plant, a massive industrial facility along the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, is considered the largest coking operation in North America and is one of four major US Steel plants in Pennsylvania that employ several thousand workers, reports the Mirror. The explosion has left dozens wounded and people trapped under rubble. Emergency workers are currently on site trying to rescue them, officials say. The Allegheny County Emergency Services said a fire at the plant started around 10:51am local time, and that it has transported five people. The agency did not provide any more details on those people transported and would only say it was an 'active scene.' The plant is considered the largest coking operation in North America with several thousand employees. Senator John Fetterman has urged people in Pennsylvania to stay away from the site of the explosion. "For those in the area, please listen to local officials and avoid the area," he wrote on X. "Keeping those injured and all who are impacted in my thoughts right now." Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. In recent years, the Clairton plant has been dogged by concerns about pollution. In 2019, it agreed to settle a 2017 lawsuit for $8.5 million (£7.3m). Under the settlement, the company agreed to spend $6.5 million (£5.6m) to reduce soot emissions and noxious odors from the Clairton coke-making facility, on the Monongahela River about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Pittsburgh. The company also faced other lawsuits over pollution from the Clairton facility, including ones accusing the company of violating clean air laws after a December 2018 fire damaged the Clairton facility's sulfur pollution controls.
