Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

HMP Grampian inmate attacked and racially abused staff members

Jamie Ross repeatedly kicked the head of a female guard in once incident and racially abused a man in another.

Jamie Ross is taken into Peterhead Sheriff Court for his case. Image: DC Thomson
Jamie Ross is taken into Peterhead Sheriff Court for his case. Image: DC Thomson

A prisoner has been handed more time behind bars for attacks on staff at HMP Grampian in Peterhead.

The town’s sheriff court heard that Jamie Ross had been serving time at the prison between 2023 and 2024 when he repeatedly got into trouble with prison officers.

It included both physical and verbal attacks on men and women.

The 30-year-old, who is originally from Edinburgh, was eventually transferred out of the prison to HMP Barlinnie, but was back in the north-east yesterday when he was handed almost two years for his offences.

Catalogue is offending while in Peterhead prison

Fiscal depute Andrew McMann described the series of offences Ross committed while in HMP Grampian.

It included having a sharpened piece of plastic within his cell in July 2023. He had claimed it was being used to keep his cubicle door closed during the night because it “rattled”.

On two occasions, he physically assaulted staff members.

Jamie Ross’ offences took place at HMP Grampian.

On June 4, last year, he was invited to go outside for exercise, but when guards attempted to have him change into an orange shirt – per regulations – he turned violent and attacked a female prison officer.

“During this time, he became aggressive and forcefully kicked a trolley.

“Thereafter, there were verbal attempts by prison officers to calm him down, but he refused to calm down.

“They ended up on the floor. Whilst on the floor, he made various threats. During the fray, he kicked her repeatedly on the left side of her head, the left side of her body, and her back.”

On another occasion, on April 27 last year, he rushed at a male member of staff while they were in his cell following threats of self-harm and headbutted him in the groin.

Threats and racial abuse followed

Following that attack, on the next day, Ross made repeated racial remarks to a male member of staff.

The man, along with other officers, had attended his cell following Ross falsely activating his emergency alarm.

“As the witnesses stood outside the cell door, he began to shout towards the complainer, calling him ‘dafty’, a ‘mongo’, and a ‘black fool’. He began to shout and swear he was a ‘black smelly b******,” Mr McMann said.

“Thereafter, he stated he would knock the teeth off his ‘black dafty face when he least expected him to’.”

Ross’ abuse continued with repeated remarks about the colour of the officer’s skin while repeatedly spitting at the men through a gap on the cell door.

Mental health issues and a sad history

Defence solicitor Nigel Beaumont, acting for Ross, said his client’s early life had a profound effect on his behaviour as an adult, but he was hopeful of moving on following today’s hearing.

“He was brought up in a divided household,” Mr Beaumont said.

Mr Beaumont described an incident that took place when Ross was nine or 10 and said it had a “devastating effect” on his life.

“His behaviour went to pieces – he was put in special care,” he added.

Mr Beaumont said in addition to being diagnosed with emotionally unstable personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder by healthcare professionals, a doctor last year also found Ross to be “psychotic”.

No other option but custody

He is now on several medications to cope with the issues.

“I’m pleased to say that since he was taken down from Grampian to Barlinnie there have been no incidents whatsoever between Mr Ross and any staff members,” Mr Beaumont added.

“Mr Ross has told me that over the last few months, his whole approach to life has got very, very much better. He is not as angry and as inflamed as he was. He is much more mellow.

“He’s very sorry about his behaviour in retrospect.”

Following a 15-minute break in the hearing to allow Sheriff Phillip Mann to deliberate on the case, Ross was sentenced to 103 weeks behind bars.

Sheriff Mann told him there was no other option available to him.

“This can only be visited by custodial sentences,” he said.