Man who hit judge blames 'machine'
By Sue Clough, Courts Correspondent

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=004140206533548&rtmo=kCexZk1p&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/1/12/njud12.html

THE man who attacked a judge at the Old Bailey was carried from the dock
by four prison officers yesterday after claiming a "machine" had made
him do it.
Three days after he leapt from the dock, hurled a water carafe towards
the 64-year-old-judge and punched her repeatedly in the face, causing a
black eye and a head wound needing five stitches, the man was brought
back to the Old Bailey.

This time he appeared before Judge Peter Beaumont, handcuffed and
flanked by four prison officers with two policemen standing outside the
dock. The man is charged with murder. Rock Tansey, QC, his counsel, told
yesterday's pre-trial hearing that he could not object to the
application from the prison guards for handcuffs "in view of what
happened the other day".

After being remanded in custody at the end of the brief hearing, the
stockily-built man would not leave the dock to go to the cells below. He
claimed a machine in Belmarsh prison was torturing him and "caused the
attack on the judge the other day. I am refusing to leave the dock until
this machine is stopped". The prison officers picked him up and carried
him from court.


9 January 2001: Prisoner beats up woman judge at the Old Bailey