The prison officer struck by Paul Taylor at the start of the riot was Brian McCormick.

“I was in the vestry just off the stage of the chapel,” recalls McCormick, aged 64, who lives in Tameside. “As soon as it kicked off, I went in and tried to get Noel (Proctor, chaplain) and the civilians out and calm things down, to regain order.

“Paul Taylor was on the microphone and there were people coming over the chapel seats towards me. It's like an amphitheatre, the chapel in Strangeways. They were putting masks on and waving chair legs and sticks about. I was knocked unconscious by Taylor who came behind me and used a chair leg. I was left unconscious in the chapel by the other officers.

“I woke up in hospital two days later. Some inmates carried me out into the vestry, and a dog handler, a good friend of mine, came up and carried me down the back steps out of the vestry into a waiting ambulance.

“I was medically retired from the service two years later. Paul Taylor is glamorising it all, saying what a good thing it was. Well it wasn't a good thing in my life.

“He has ruined my life. I have lived with this for 20 years and I still sufffer with nightmares and flashbacks to this day.”

Strangeways: The day the rooftop rebels took over

Strangeways: The governor's story

Strangeways: The riot leader's story