Prisoner guilty of murdering fellow inmate will serve at least 34 years

LIFE SENTENCE FOR SHOWER BLOCK KILLING

- MARTIN NAYLOR

A PRISONER who murdered a fellow inmate inside HMP Nottingham while on remand for attempting to murder a man on his Edwalton doorstep has been jailed for life.

Sentencing Andrew Thorpe at Nottingham Crown Court, a judge told him it would be 34 years before he will be eligible to apply for parole.

Following a near-three week trial last month, a jury took more than eight hours to unanimously find the 38-year-old guilty of murdering Jonathan Thornton who he attacked in the shower block of the prison while on remand for trying to kill Declan Hales who he repeatedly stabbed a month earlier.

And as well as Mr Hales, who attended every day of the trial with family and friends, seven members of the jury who convicted Thorpe returned to see what his sentence was yesterday.

Jailing him, Judge Nirmal Shant KC said: "You have changed the lives of families forever and the effects of what you committed are clearly going to be long-lasting. You will never be released until you are deemed safe to be released."

The trial was told how following what the prosecution described as a “vicious attack,” Mr Thornton was found lifeless on the floor and never regained consciousness before dying two weeks later. Mr Hales suffered a number of stab wounds in the earlier assault but survived.