Norfolk Murderer To Be Charged For Mark Bridger Prison Attack

2 October 2013, 09:36 | Updated: 2 October 2013, 10:42

A life prisoner who murdered a woman in Dereham in Norfolk is due to be sentenced for attacking child killer Mark Bridger in one of the country's top security jails.

Juvinai Ferreira, 22, used a makeshift knife to attack the 47-year-old who abducted and murdered five-year-old April Jones in Machynlleth, Wales, a year ago.

Ferreira, also a convicted murderer, has admitted wounding Bridger in an attack at Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire, in July. He will be sentenced at Leeds Crown Court.

According to reports at the time of the attack, Bridger needed hospital treatment to a face wound after he was slashed.

Ferreira appeared via video link for his plea hearing last month and appeared impatient.

After Judge Christopher Batty told him the case was going to be adjourned, Ferreira said to him: ``Can you just not sentence me? I can't keep coming back. Just give me anything and move on.''

The judge told him a pre-sentence report was necessary to assess his level of dangerousness and decide whether a second life term was appropriate.

Ferreira was found guilty at Norwich Crown Court in 2009 of murdering Elaine Walpole in Dereham, Norfolk, in April 2008.

At the time police said Ferreira - who is originally from Gambia - moved to Dereham in 2007 with a relative after escaping civil war in Africa.

He befriended 47-year-old Ms Walpole, who lived alone, after they met at a shop and she bought him cigarettes.

Prosecutors at the time suggested that Ferreira was ``sex-crazed''.

Post-mortem tests showed that Ms Walpole, a former hotel worker who had three children, had been stabbed three times and bitten.

Detectives and forensic experts spent nearly a year carrying out checks to show Ferreira was an adult as he said he was 16.

Once it was proved he was not a juvenile, Ferreira was given a life sentence and told he must serve at least 22 years before being considered for parole.

Bridger, a father of six, snatched April near her home in Machynlleth on October 1, 2012.

He was given a whole-life tariff by a judge in May at Mold Crown Court.

The five-year-old's body has never been found. Her funeral was held last week.