A female prisoner who slashed monster mother Theresa Riggi with a razor in Scotland’s only all-women jail was yesterday facing another jail term.
Angela Hamilton sneaked into Riggi’s cell at Cornton Vale Prison, Stirling, after breakfast and cut her face with a razor blade.
She left Riggi lying on her cell with her face covered in blood and a clump of her hair missing from her head.
Hamilton then calmly walked back to her cell as prison guards rushed to Riggi’s aid alerted by her screaming.
Riggi, 50, was locked up for 16 years in 2011 after she admitted stabbing to death her three children – eight-year-old twins Austin and Luca and five-year-old Cecilia – after moving from the family home in Skene, Aberdeenshire, to Edinburgh amid a bitter custody dispute.
She was found dead in her room at a secure hospital in Nottinghamshire in March this year.
Hamilton, 40, denied the attack but a jury of 10 women and five men at Stirling Sheriff Court took little over an hour to find her guilty by majority.
Her lawyer, Murray Aitken, said Hamilton suffered from a variety of problems including drug abuse.
Sheriff William Gilchrist deferred sentence until October 3 for background reports, and released Hamilton on bail. She made no comment after the verdict.
The incident occurred on November 19, 2011, while Hamilton was in jail serving a sentence for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Riggi was in Cornton Vale during her first year of a 16-year sentence imposed for killing her three children. The court heard she was regarded as a “high-profile” prisoner.
During the two-day trial, prison officer Calum Graham told how he went to Riggi’s cell that morning after hearing screaming, saw Hamilton leaving the cell and then Riggi lying on the floor inside with blood on her face, still screaming.
His colleague James McCabe said his hands and clothing became “covered in Riggi’s blood” as he tried to help her.
The court was told Riggi, originally from California, USA, had a history of self harm which was on record in prison, and had been diagnosed with a personality disorder and paranoia.
She tried to kill herself twice in prison a week after being assaulted by Hamilton.
Defence lawyer Murray Aitken said Hamilton, of Cambuslang, could have walked in on Riggi harming herself and screamed.
Fiscal depute Claire Bremner told the jury: “There has been no evidence in this case that Theresa Riggi ever inflicted an injury on herself by cutting herself with a blade.”