A CONVICTED murderer who stabbed his prison guards apologised yesterday for wounding three officers in a savage attack outside his cell.

However Kevan Thakrar accused officers of a ‘‘stitch-up’’intended to ensure he spent the rest of his life behind bars.

The 24-year-old triple killer, who is on trial for attempted murder and wounding with intent, claimed there was a conspiracy of silence among prison staff with regard to assaults by officers on inmates.

The former student and shop assistant told a jury at Newcastle Crown Court officers operated according to a principal of “see no evil, hear no evil” when it came to their colleagues’ “abuse of power”.

He said he was denied food and sleep the night before he used a broken bottle to maim officers Craig Wylde, Claire Lewis and Neil Walker in Frankland Prison, Durham, in March last year.

He said: ‘‘It is obviously wrong what happened, the individuals that have been hurt, and I am sorry for that, but it should not have come to that.

‘‘If you put an animal in a cage and poke it, poke it and poke it, then unlock the door, it’s not going to just sit there, is it?’’ He accused wardens of planting the bottle in his cell in the hope he would use it to harm himself. He claimed it was a plot to prevent him from attending court to appeal against his conviction in 2008 for the murders of three men and attempted murder of two women in a drug dispute.

Cross examining, prosecutor Tim Gittins said Thakrar had tried to kill officers Wylde and Lewis with the bottle.

He said: ‘‘You made it into a very effective weapon, one capable of inflicting fatal violence, didn’t you?’’ Thakrar, originally from Stevenage, in Hertfordshire, replied: ‘‘I was not in control.

‘‘I was not thinking right.

‘‘You’re trying to imply I was capable of making rational decisions having not slept, having not eaten, and having all those thoughts running round in my head.”

He denies all charges, saying he lashed out at the guards in self-defence believing he was about to be attacked.

The trial continues.