AN inmate has appeared in court by video link accused of attacking another prisoner with an improvised weapon.

Fabio Serrano is accused of slashing the other inmate across the face with the bladed implement, at Durham Prison, on July 31, last year.

The complainant, who Serrano is said to have known from outside the prison, suffered a deep cut across his left cheek.

Appearing via a prison to court link from HMP Aylesbury, a young offenders’ institution in Buckinghamshire, the 18-year-old defendant, from Benwell, in Newcastle, was to have put pleas in to charges of wounding with intent and the alternative of unlawful wounding.

But his counsel, Jane Waugh, said he had been unable to view footage of the incident, recovered from prison cctv cameras.

Recorder Simon Kealey agreed to adjourn the plea hearing until July 5 to allow him to see the footage.

But a provisional trial date of August 7 was set, with a three-day estimate.