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DARTMOUTH, N.S. —

Police have charged 15 inmates at the provincial jail in Dartmouth – including a member of the notorious Marriott crime family from Halifax -- in connection with a serious assault against a fellow inmate earlier this month.

Sources says Brian James (B.J.) Marriott orchestrated the Dec. 2 attack in a cell on 46-year-old Stephen Francis Anderson within half an hour of Anderson's arrival in one of the units at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility.

Anderson, who is currently before the courts on 19 weapons, assault and drug charges, was beaten and stabbed, and taken to hospital with what police described at the time as life-threatening injuries. He has since been released.

Police charged Marriott and 14 other people Thursday. They are facing charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, forcible confinement, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, and obstructing a peace officer.

It has been reported that some of the inmates created a human wall around Anderson's cell while he was being attacked, preventing guards from intervening.

The other inmates charged are:

41-year-old Kaz Henry Cox

25-year-old Austin Michael Mitton

32-year-old Andriko Jamal Crawley

24-year-old Wesley Todd Hardiman

32-year-old Colin Eric Ladelpha

32-year-old Kevin Edward Clarke-McNeil

35-year-old Matthew Ross Lambert

27-year-old Robert Victor Fraser

31-year-old Matthew Francis Coaker

29-year-old Kirk Kenman Carridice

32-year-old Omar Orlando McIntosh

40-year-old Geevan Nagendran

40-year-old Sophon Sek

22-year-old Jacob Matthew Lilly.

Lilly has also been charged with assaulting a peace officer.

Two weeks before the attack, Marriott was sentenced by a Halifax judge after pleading guilty to two counts of breaching a recognizance out of Montreal and one of breaching a peace bond out of Miramichi, N.B. The judge imposed a nine-month sentence but credited him with 136 days for his time on remand, leaving him with 134 days, or about 4.5 month, to serve.

Marriott was released from federal prison in October 2018 after serving all 16 years, four months and 22 days of a sentence for manslaughter and other offences, including assault with a weapon, conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the Dartmouth jail, and possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking at the Springhill Institution.

Cox was arrested at the jail in November and charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Triston Reece this past summer. Reece, 19, was shot on Scot Street in Halifax on the night of July 26.

McIntosh was in Kentville provincial court this week, where he is facing charges of possession of a weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm, using a firearm in the commission of an offence, assault with a weapon, wearing a mask while committing an offence, extortion with a firearm, and careless use of a firearm.

Lilly is facing charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and possession of a dangerous weapon in connection with an assault in downtown Halifax early on the morning of July 7, in which a man was attacked with an edged weapon.

More than a year ago, Nagendran was sentenced to two years in custody for possession of opium for the purpose of trafficking, but that was reduced to 83 days because of time served on remand.

Hardiman was arrested and charged with nine weapons offences in November after police went to a Cole Harbour home following reports of a man pointing a handgun at people inside a home.