Inmate serving life for murder charged with attacking prison guard Matthew Tidman

SHIRLEY — An inmate from Virginia serving a life sentence for murder has been charged with beating a guard at the Massachusetts Corrections Institution-Shirley who is still fighting for his life a month after the attack.

The Middlesex District Attorney’s Office charged Roy L. Booth Jr., 40, with armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery causing serious bodily injury and mayhem for the Aug. 31 attack on corrections officer Matthew Tidman.

Tidman has been in intensive care at Lahey Hospital in Burlington since the attack.

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A Middlesex Grand Jury indicted Booth on Wednesday. He will be arraigned next month in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn.

According to investigators, Booth was in the recreation area of the medium security area of MCI-Shirley a little after 2 p.m. on Aug. 31 when he took a metal pole weighing 10 to 15 pounds and attacked Tidman, striking him several times. Tidman was monitoring inmates at the time.

Investigators alleged Booth unscrewed the object used to strike Tidman, part of a weight-lifting apparatus, and concealed it as he approached and then attacked Tidman.

Fellow corrections officers restrained Booth after the beating and helped Tidman, investigators said. Booth was placed into protective custody and moved to the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center next door.

Booth has been at MCI-Shirley since March 2021 as part of the Interstate Corrections Compact, which transfers inmates between states in certain circumstances. Booth is serving a life sentence for the 2001 murder of Melissa Tanner in Portsmouth, Virginia.

“This incident highlights the dangers corrections officers face every day while performing their duties,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a statement. “Officer Tidman still has a very long road ahead of him and we know that this frightening incident of workplace violence will have a lasting impact on his family and colleagues.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Roy Booth Jr. charged with assault of Mass. corrections officer