A disgruntled inmate torched his prison cell using miniature jars of jam, a court has heard.
Armed robber James Donoghue pushed a mattress against his cell door and ignited the pots of preserves in protest at being denied medication.
Firefighters had to be called to Perth Prison as Donoghue trashed two cells within hours of being moved to the maximum security jail.
Depute fiscal Gavin Letford told Perth Sheriff Court: “The accused buzzed on the intercom and asked about his medication.
“When it was explained he would not receive it until he had been assessed by the doctor prison guards heard a noise over the intercom that sounded like something breaking.
“An officer went to the cell and saw that the sink had been extensively damaged.”
After being left to calm down, the 33-year-old was moved to another cell, which he again vandalised this time more seriously as he damaged a mirror, sink, cupboard and spyhole.”
Some time later Donoghue was heard shouting “fire” and when officers looked in they saw the mattress pressed against the door and flames rising from the floor.
Donoghue, of Wiston Place in Dundee, admitted two charges of vandalism and a third of setting fire to his cell and causing smoke damage in July last year. Sentence has been deferred.
He was jailed for nearly five years in 2011 after clambering through a student’s window and robbing him at knifepoint.