A HAMPSHIRE convict jailed for a minimum five-and-a-half-years for trying to kill a fellow inmate with a home-made weapon has seen his prison term reduced.

Samuel Hall, of International Way, Southampton, was serving a sentence for attempted robbery at a young offenders’ institution when he attacked the other prisoner in a revenge attack.

He pleaded guilty to attempted murder in June 2011 and was later sentenced to a minimum of five-and-ahalf years.

But after a hearing in London, three top judges have decided to cut the “manifestly excessive” minimum four-and-a-half years.

Judge Neil Ford QC told the court Hall was serving a sentence at Kent’s Rochester Young Offenders’ Institution in October 2011 and had developed a grudge against fellow con, Lewis Bennett.

Planning an attack, he manufactured a weapon, using a modeling blade which he attached to the melted handle of a plastic knife.

After inviting Mr Bennett into his cell, Hall then attacked him, slashing him to the face and neck.

“It was a matter of pure good fortune that Mr Bennett’s injuries were relatively modest,” said the judge.

Hall, who had convictions for 49 previous offences, accepted that he had been trying to kill his victim by slashing his throat.

He was sentenced to indefinite imprisonment for public protection and ordered to serve the five-and-a-half-year minimum before even applying for release.

In a hearing in London, Judge Ford, sitting with Lord Justice Elias and Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart, said the minimum term was too long.

“A minimum of four-and-ahalf years to be served would have been appropriate,” said the judge.

Hall will only be freed after serving his minimum term if he is considered safe by the Parole Board.

He was initially jailed in 2009 for holding a knife to a ten-year-old girl’s throat on a Southampton bus to force her sister to hand over her handbag.

He was sentenced to three years at Southampton Crown Court in August 2009.