A prison officer told a court he had a “feeling” something was going to happen the night a riot broke out at the north-east’s superjail – but never expected it to get “smashed up”.
Darren Martin was working at HMP Grampian when a riot broke out on May 13, 2014.
Six former inmates are currently on trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court accused of banding together to form an “evil mob” at the prison.
Robert Gill, 26, of Newmachar; Stephen Sim, 31, of Stonehaven; Michael Stewart, 31, of Forfar; Dominic Jordan, 30, of Merseyside; Sandy Mundie, 30; and George Thomson, 33, both from Aberdeen accept they were being held in custody at the time of the offence but deny taking part in the disturbance themselves.
Yesterday, Mr Martin told the jury he was on duty when the incident unfolded, and back in the next morning.
He told them he saw inmates building a barricade that was a couple of feet high using items such as mattresses and kettles.
And he said that the next day, he was part of a four-man team tasked with extracting prisoners from the C Section of the Ellon wing and taking them to the reception area.
Fiscal Depute David Bernard asked him about his statement, in which he said he had not expected things to go as far as they did.
Mr Martin said: “I did not expect for the place to get smashed up.”
Mr Bernard went on to ask him: “Did you have any sense of something pending?”
He replied: “I had a feeling that something was going to happen, but not to the extent it went.”
The trial continues.