Donald Gaote-Oueyeya, 26, launched his attack with a makeshift weapon made from prison cutlery, a court heard.
15:14, 18 May 2026Updated 16:22, 18 May 2026
John Henry Sayers was slashed in an attack at HMP Frankland in County Durham
A murderer will spend a further four years behind bars after slashing the neck of a fellow inmate. John Henry Sayers required hospital treatment after being attacked by Donald Gaote-Oueyeya at HMP Frankland in April last year.
Gaote-Oueyeya, 26, was serving a life sentence for killing a 17-year-old boy during a gang attack in Wandsworth, London, when he was also 17.
Teesside Crown Court heard that shortly after 6pm on April 30, 2025, prisoners at HMP Frankland were out of their cells and taking part in “association time” when Gaote-Oueyeya ran at Sayers on the prison landing and attacked him “without warning”.
John Henry Sayers
Gaote-Oueyeya repeatedly slashed at Sayers with an improvised blade, believed to have been made from a piece of prison cutlery. Sayers sustained a “fairly deep” 7cm laceration to his neck, a 5cm wound to the right side of his forehead and a 2cm cut to his right ring finger, the court heard.
He was taken to hospital for further treatment. The court heard that the weapon was never recovered.
A prison officer also received several cuts to his right arm and a cut on his eye while trying to intervene. The court heard that his injuries were not caused deliberately and Gaote-Oueyeya was sorry that the officer had been caught up in the incident.
In a victim personal statement written in May last year, the officer told the court: “I still think about the incident itself. Although I haven’t really been back to work properly since, I can’t really put it into context the true impact of it yet but it does make me think more about the job.
“I wasn’t expecting myself to pick up injuries from a weapon, even though I know it’s prison. It does make me realise that we are not fully safe in the jail.”
In mitigation, Christopher Dunn said there was no excuse for Gaote-Oueyeya’s actions. He said he was unable to go to the authorities for fear of being called a “grass” and he was “frightened”.
HMP Frankland in County Durham(Image: PA)
Judge Francis Laird said Gaote-Oueyeya had been a “model prisoner” up until the incident and accepted that it was likely his good behaviour would return after being moved to a different prison.
Appearing via video link from HMP Long Lartin, Gaote-Oueyeya was sentenced to four years for wounding with intent and nine months for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, to be served concurrently to each other after his current sentence.
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