Woodhill Prison inmates 'tried to behead fellow inmate'
A prisoner was publicly killed by fellow inmates, who tried to behead him in a "savage" attack, a court heard.
Taras Nykolyn, 49 died at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes on 5 June 2018. Stephen Boorman, 34, and James Brabbs, 33, deny murdering the 49-year-old Ukrainian in a prison yard. Jibreel Raheem, 27, has admitted murder. The Old Bailey was told the three men repeatedly stabbed Nykolyn with homemade blades before tying a cloth ligature around his neck. Prosecutor Amjad Malik QC said the men "carefully planned" the killing, using improvised weapons and cloth ripped from a bed sheet. 'Public killing' He said: "They were attempting to remove the head from Taras Nykolyn's body. That is the nature of the savagery that these two men wished to indulge in. "After arming themselves with hidden prison shanks, that ligature, they carried out a public killing." Mr Malik said the attack took place in front of the prison guards and was captured on CCTV and handheld cameras. They wanted to demonstrate they were "untouchable," he added. The jury was told Boorman had been serving a sentence for attempted murder while Brabbs was in jail for murder and attempted murder on another inmate. Raheem was serving a sentence for an attempted murder while Nykolyn was in prison for a manslaughter conviction. The trial continues.