Lifer who shot dead policeman in 2003 given second life term for prison attack
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A convicted killer who wounded a female prison officer in a “frenzied” 10-second attack while serving a life term for shooting a policeman in 2003 has been given a further life sentence.
Former US marine and bodybuilder David Bieber used a potentially “deadly” homemade pronged iron bar to repeatedly stab Alison Smith in 2017, while serving life for the murder of Pc Ian Broadhurst and the attempted murder of two of his colleagues.
Pc Broadhurst was shot in Leeds at point blank range on Boxing Day 2003, as he and other officers checked on a suspected stolen car.
A week-long trial at Worcester Crown Court earlier this year was told only good fortune had seen Ms Smith escape life-changing injury or even death, as she used an arm to protect her head at HMP Long Lartin, near Evesham, Worcestershire.
He was cleared of the prison officer’s attempted murder but convicted at his June 2022 trial of wounding with intent and having an unauthorised weapon.
At trial, Bieber, 56, claimed the attack at Long Lartin on August 10 2017 was aimed at winning a transfer back to HMP Belmarsh in London, and that HMP Long Lartin had cut his painkilling medication.
He appeared at Worcester Crown Court on Tuesday, where the sentencing judge told him the penalty for the “unprovoked” attack meant he would not be eligible for release until he was in his 80s.
Jailing Bieber, who appeared via video-link from HMP Wakefield, West Yorkshire, for life with a minimum six-year term, Judge Nicholas Cartwright told him it had been “a planned attack, with a weapon, on a wholly innocent prison officer”.
The sentence was passed after the judge ruled Bieber was a dangerous offender, already serving a life sentence for murder, and having read a recent probation report which concluded he was of “very high risk of harm” to prison officers and – if ever released – the public.
He said Bieber, who said the attack was to get transferred to another prison where access to painkilling medication might prove easier, “picked” his moment, “launching an unprovoked attack from behind”.
He grabbed Ms Smith around the neck, with an arm, and “launched a frenzied attack, punching out at her face with the handhold of the weapon, and trying repeatedly to stab her in the face”.
“During the attack, you said you would kill her – after the attack saying you just wanted your meds,” said the judge.
“(This was) a planned attack, with a weapon, on a wholly innocent prison officer, only carried out because you hoped to achieve a transfer (to another jail) by means of your actions.”
“Your victim was obviously vulnerable,” he added.
“She was in a locked corridor with you behind and a number of other inmates in front.
“She was isolated and significantly smaller than you – you are a tall and well-built man.
“The attack has resulted in her suffering a permanent psychological medical condition, having a substantial and long-term effect on her ability to carry out day-to-day activities, and work.”
The judge told him: “A life sentence must follow.”
Fixing the minimum term, Judge Cartwright told him: “That sentence will begin and run from the date on which your existing minimum term is to end – namely January 1, 2041.
“The effect is that your overall minimum term will rise from 37 to 43 years.”
The prisoner reacted to the news he would not be eligible for release until 2047 by putting his head back against the wall and pushing his glasses further back on his head.
Bieber, who had a “trusted role” as a cleaner at the time of the attack, denied attempted murder, an alternative charge of wounding and the charge relating to the weapon.
The court heard that other officers quickly came to Ms Smith’s aid after she screamed, restraining Bieber and disarming him.
She was later treated in hospital for cuts to her mouth and chin and four wounds to her right arm.
Ms Smith said at a previous hearing the attack had been “life-changing” and left her with constant pain.
The former kickboxer was hunted by US police for eight years before he shot Pc Broadhurst.
The bodybuilding fanatic is also accused of paying a hitman to kill a love rival in Florida in 1995, and would face extradition if he is ever deemed safe to be granted parole in the UK.
