Crime

Inmate pleads guilty to beating corrections officer at MCI-Shirley

Roy Booth, 42, pled guilty Friday in Middlesex Superior Court to charges of mayhem and armed assault with intent to murder.

October 19, 2024

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An inmate and convicted murderer has pleaded guilty to beating a corrections officer at Massachusetts Correctional Institution (MCI)-Shirley in 2022, Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan announced Friday.

Roy Booth, 42, pled guilty Friday in Middlesex Superior Court to charges of mayhem and armed assault with intent to murder, according to the statement. The charges stem from an Aug. 31, 2022, attack on corrections officer Matthew Tidman at MCI-Shirley, which is a medium-security state prison.

Investigators say that during recreation time that day, Booth unscrewed a metal pole from a weight-lifting apparatus in the gym and hid it before attacking Tidman from behind. Booth used the 15-pound pole to “relentlessly beat” Tidman until other corrections officers physically restrained him, according to officials. Tidman was brought by Medical Flight to Lahey Hospital in Burlington and received treatment in an intensive care unit.

According to the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union, the attack on Tidman was unprovoked, and he had been struck several times in the face.

“Roy Booth’s brutal attack on Corrections Officer Matthew Tidman highlights the dangers that law enforcement, specifically Corrections Officers, face in their day-to-day work,” Ryan said in a press release. “No one should have to fear for their life in their workplace. Fortunately, Corrections Officer Tidman, having suffered horrendous injuries, and against all odds, survived this terrifying attack.”

Middlesex Superior Court Judge Catherine Ham sentenced Booth to 13 to 15 years at MCI-Souza-Baranowski, a maximum security prison in Lancaster, according to the statement. Booth will serve the sentence consecutively with his previous life sentence for murder.

Booth had been transferred from Virginia to the Massachusetts prison in March 2021. He was transferred back to a Virginia state prison following the attack on Tidman.