Westgate inmate Alvone Maybury has been accused of stabbing a fellow prisoner with a foot-long “shank” that passed straight through his victim’s arm.

Maybury, 27, has denied unlawfully wounding inmate Sean Evans, 24, on October 24, 2012. The other inmate’s right forearm was impaled by a spike believed to be fashioned from a bucket handle, as prisoners left a recreational area on October 24, 2012.

Also known as the ‘Facebook Fugitive’ for bragging online after escaping police custody in July, 2010, Maybury is currently serving prison terms of 13-and-a-half years and nine years.

He was imprisoned for shooting at Parkside gang rivals in 2009, and for conspiring to shoot gangster Raymond (Yankee) Rawlins, also in 2009. Magistrates’ Court heard that prior to the attack, inmates were let out at 10.30am for outdoor recreation. Ten minutes later, Basic Officer Millard Rawlins said, a “duress alarm” alerted him to trouble outside, where he found “inmates shouting and officers trying to defuse what was going on”.

The court heard that two groups of inmates were in a standoff between the baseball and football yards, with officers taking away gym equipment held by prisoners.

The situation subsequently calmed, Officer Rawlins said.

However, as he led a group including Maybury back to their housing unit around 11.30am, Evans walked out asking to speak with another prisoner. He was told to go back inside, as recreation time was now over. “He turned and went back toward the gate,” Officer Rawlins said. “As he was walking back, I saw Maybury run past me, which was not unusual to see.”

Inmates commonly ran inside after recreation to get to the showers, he explained.

However, he added: “I observed Maybury punching Evans, two quick punches.”

Assuming Maybury was hitting the other man on the shoulder, Officer Rawlins said he shouted at him to desist.

Asked by Crown counsel Nicole Smith if he’d seen anything in Maybury’s hand, the officer said that he hadn’t — but had only been able to see the back of Maybury’s elbow.

Division Officer Aubrey Eve, who was watch commander that day, told the court he’d been following along at the back of the group of inmates heading back into housing. As they approached the outer gate, DO Eve said, he noticed Evans approach and speak with Officer Rawlins. “Then I saw Maybury make a move,” DO Eve said, saying the inmate stretched out his arms and leaned forward.

“He was to the right side of the group — no one was by his side; Evans was in front of him. I observed Evans go to my right as if to get away.”

DO Eve said he assumed the inmate was trying to evade Maybury.

“I observed Evans hold his arm out, with a metal object through it. It was in his right arm. It was actually a long metal spike, 11 or 12 inches, and sharpened.

“I was advancing toward him when he had his arm up, looking at me. He said to me, ‘Look at where it’s gone — this is where it’s gone’,” DO Eve told the court, adding that he saw no blood and that the victim remained calm.

The object was “a metal shank going right through his forearm, completely through to the other side”, he said.

“It could have been the handle to a bucket, sharpened.”

DO Eve said “shank” was a prison term for “anything that’s been sharpened to do bodily harm”.

Shown the object in the courtroom, DO Eve said he recognised it as the same device — sharp at one end and curved at the other.

According to a hospital report, Evans arrived for surgery later that day with a small puncture wound to the right side of his chest and a spike thrust between the two main bones of his forearm.

The shank was surgically removed.

The court also heard from Detective Constable LaToyia Raynor, the police officer in charge of the subsequent investigation, who told defence lawyer Duante Williams that no DNA tests had been performed on the shank because it would have been sterilised at the hospital.

Dc Raynor added that Maybury, when arrested on January 17, declined to give an interview — and that Evans had also declined to offer a statement.

The trial continues next month.