‘Terrifying attack’: Convicted murderer pleads guilty to beating corrections officer at MCI-Shirley

WOBURN, Mass. — A convicted murderer pled guilty Friday to charges he brutally beat a corrections officer in a “terrifying attack” inside MCI-Shirley, officials said.

Roy Booth, 42, pled guilty in Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn to charges of mayhem and armed assault with intent to murder in connection with an August 2022 incident at the medium-security facility that left Officer Matthew Tidman with life-threatening injuries, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.

Judge Catherine Ham sentenced Booth to 13-15 years at MCI-Souza-Baranowski, time which will be served consecutively with a life sentence that he is serving in Virginia on a conviction of murder.

“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 statement. “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.”

Booth used a metal pole that he took from a weight room during recreation time to relentlessly beat Tidman. He only stopped the attack once he was physically restrained by other corrections officers.

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

Two months after the attack, Tidman was “walking, eating and determined to get out of the hospital,” Legislative Representative for the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union said at the time.

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