Another mentally ill inmate has been blamed for the weekend attack on George Williams, the elderly man languishing in Jamaica’s prison system for almost five decades without a trial.

The accused inmate, sources revealed, is among scores of mentally ill persons who were recently transferred from the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre to the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre where Williams is being housed.

Williams, 71, suffered injuries to one of his eyes and to his ribs during the attack inside his cell at the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre on Saturday, his attorney, Isat Buchanan, told The Gleaner.

Williams was arrested and charged in 1970 for allegedly killing another man during a violent attack on a family that was driving through his St Catherine community of Ivy, straddling the border of Ewarton and Mount Rosser, his attorney and relatives have revealed.

Williams is one of seven mentally ill men identified in a report by INDECOM who have each spent at least 40 years in prison awaiting trial.