By Ryan Mancini
masslive.com
SHIRLEY, Mass. — A man pleaded guilty to attacking a corrections officer at MCI-Shirley in 2022, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office announced Friday.
Roy Booth, 42, pleaded guilty in Middlesex Superior Court to charges of mayhem, and armed assault with intent to murder, Ryan’s office said in a statement.
Booth was sentenced to 13 to 15 years at MCI-Souza-Baranowski, which will be served concurrently with a life sentence he is serving in Virginia on a murder conviction.
On Aug. 31, 2022, Booth used a metal pole “to relentlessly beat” Corrections Officer Matthew Tidman, Ryan’s office said. Booth took the pole from the weight room in the prison gym and hid it by his side leading up to the attack, where he struck Tidman from behind.
Corrections officers restrained Booth during the attack, the statement read. The attack left Tidman with severe neck and head injuries and he was placed on life support, a union representing correction officers told MassLive at the time.
Ryan’s office obtained video footage of the incident and conducted interviews at the facility. The investigation revealed that Booth had allegedly unscrewed the object used to strike Tidman, which had been part of a weight-lifting machine, and concealed it as he approached Tidman and attacked.
Tidman was on life-support until October 2022, “walking, eating and determined to get out of the hospital,” union representative Kevin Flanagan told MassLive at that time.
The video below discusses 12 recommendations COs can take in the event of an attack.
“Roy Booth’s brutal attack on Corrections Officer Matthew Tidman highlights the dangers that law enforcement, specifically corrections officers, face in their day-to-day work,” Ryan said in the statement. “No one should have to fear for their life in their workplace. Fortunately, Corrections Officer Tidman, having suffered horrendous injuries, and against all odds, survived this terrifying attack.”
Booth was transferred from Virginia to MCI-Shirley in 2021 before he was transferred back after the attack, Ryan’s office said. This was due to an Interstate Corrections Compact, which means inmates are transferred between states under certain circumstances, according to Ryan’s office in 2022.
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