Bristol murderer Steven Jones has sentence extended after stabbing fellow inmate in revenge attack

It was over the sale of a bad pill

A convicted murderer from Bristol has had his prison sentence extended after he stabbed a fellow inmate with a makeshift knife made out of a broom handle.

Steven Jones, 38, was just eight months into a life sentence for the murder of neighbour Tracey Bowen in Hartcliffe, Bristol, when he carried out the new attack.

He sharpened pieces of the broken handle to make a potentially deadly knife which he used to attack victim Reece Rowe at Exeter Prison.

He stabbed him in the face at least twice, jabbed the weapon into his leg, and caused wounds to his arms and hands.

Jones admitted wounding and three offences of having an offensive weapon in prison and was jailed for an additional 28 months by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

The judge told him the sentence would be served after he completes his existing 17-year minimum term.

He said there had to be a consecutive sentence because of the seriousness of the attack and the danger posed by the use of weapons in jail.

Jones, of Bishport Avenue, Bristol, was jailed after being found guilty of murder at Bristol Crown Court in June 2018.

Ms Bowen was stabbed in the neck after inviting Jones and his partner Rebecca Kerr to join her in a drug taking session at her flat in the Rowan House tower block in November 2017.

Kerr was jailed for four hears for assisting an offender.

Exeter Crown Court heard that the prison stabbing took place in February last year. Jones had been caught with identical makeshift 'shanks' twice in the preceding two weeks.

He claimed that Rowe, who was in jail for dangerous driving in Plymouth, had sold him a bad pill and he stabbed him in revenge.

Mr Joss Ticehurst, prosecuting, said Jones was caught with almost identical weapons on February 2 and 5 last year. All were about nine inches long and had been whittled down to create a blade or point.

On the first occasion, he came out of his cell with the shank while making stabbing motions and was restrained and disarmed by prison officers. Jones was found with a new weapon hidden in his trousers two days later.

He made yet another wooden shank and used it to attack Rowe in a cell on February 14. He caused cuts to his ear, nose, leg, arm and hand which were treated at the prison sick bay.

The incident ended when prison staff went into the cell and ordered him to drop the weapon.

Mr Benjamin Williams, defending, said Jones had pleaded guilty on the basis that he attacked Rowe because he had sold him a dodgy pill.

He said all the injuries were glued and none were serious enough to require hospital treatment or stitching.