A Westgate prisoner who attacked another inmate over a CD player was sentenced to another nine months in jail yesterday.

Rashad Cooper left Jonathan Darrell with a three-inch laceration to the back of his head after the assault at the Westgate Transitional Living Centre on January 31.

He was serving a seven-year sentence at the time for chopping a gay man's face with a machete in a homophobic attack in 2007 and has a history of violent crime.

The 27-year-old — older brother of the murdered Cooper twins — pleaded guilty at Magistrates' Court to causing grievous bodily harm.

Prosecutor Cindy Clarke said Darrell lent his CD player to Cooper last year and, when it wasn't returned, went to the defendant's room and took it back.

"Cooper became aggressive," she said. "The accused lost his temper and threatened damage to the CD player."

Ms Clarke said Cooper pushed Darrell and Darrell struck him, before he was knocked to the ground, suffering a brain injury described as a frontal lobe contusion.

The prosecutor said Cooper, previously of Fenton's Drive, Pembroke, repeatedly told his victim afterwards to "tell people he slipped in the shower". Ms Clarke added that he ought to be jailed for between 12 and 18 months.

Shade Subair, mitigating, said the CD player belonged to Cooper and that Darrell slapped him. "Mr. Cooper reacted with the single gesture of a push which resulted in the complainant falling to the ground," she said. "The complainant was never unconscious."

The defence lawyer added: "The complainant had, in fact, been intoxicated by liquor. He did not want to bring it to the authorities' attention because he would have got into trouble, so the two of them agreed that they would come out with this story about the shower."

Ms Subair said the incident amounted to "a scuffle that got out of hand" and the charge reflected the fact that there was no intent to wound on the part of her client.

"Mr. Cooper would have been otherwise eligible for immediate release on parole had it not been for this case," she said. "It's unfortunate how it unfolded."

Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo said due to the defendant's criminal record he was sentencing him to an immediate prison sentence of nine months.