A prisoner will spend longer behind bars after throwing a jug of faeces and urine over an officer as others looked on laughing.

Robber Edward Highton, 40, had targeted the officer after he had called for lock-up at the Isle of Sheppey jail.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how the contents of the jug were thrown into the officer's face, mouth and eyes and over his uniform.

The smell was so pungent that the officer repeatedly vomited as he tried to wash and remove his clothing, prosecutor Trevor Wright said.

The officer needed to go to hospital for tests to see if he had contracted any disease as a result of the attack. All were negative but he said the "humiliating" incident led him to quit the prison service.

Highton, who has 17 previous convictions for 40 offences including kidnap and causing grievous bodily harm, now faces a further 27 months behind bars.

He claimed he had been "under pressure" from other inmates to carry out the attack adding that there was "money on his head" and he had previously been beaten and stabbed.

But Mr Wright said jail records showed the only complaints Highton had made two months before he assaulted the officer were about the way the governor was running the prison and nothing about violence or mistreatment.

He had also boasted he could "handle himself" having spent a total of 15 years inside adding "not one punishment has slowed me down."

Highton, of no fixed address but previously from Newent, Gloucestershire, admitted administering a poison or noxious substance with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy on September 22, 2018.

Judge Catherine Moore said there might have been an element of coercion but added: "This was a disgusting attack on the prison officer as he went about his responsibilities. He was a public servant, performing a difficult and challenging role in protecting the public and those detained.

"Such attacks are designed to, and indeed did, upset, demean and distress the officer concerned. Any conduct of this nature creates an obvious and serious risk of wider disorder and disobedience. It affects not only the morale of the officers but the safety of those in a custodial environment."

CCTV clearly captured the offence in its entirety with the footage showing Highton calmly leaving his cell and casually approaching the member of staff before throwing the items.

He was sentenced to two years and three months jail on Wednesday. At the time of the offence he was serving eight-and-a-half-years for a robbery committed in Oxford in April 2010.

Det Con Matthew Robinson of Kent Police said: "Highton has already spent a considerable part of his adult life in prison and this case shows that he remains incapable of displaying the most basic standards of respect and decency to other people.

"What the victim was subjected to was disgusting and degrading. Prison officers know their position can expose them to unpredictable and challenging incidents but that does not in any way provide an excuse for Highton’s intolerable behaviour.

Mr Robinson added: "We work closely with the prison service when staff are targeted in this manner and will always work to prosecute offenders. I am pleased a new jail term has been imposed. It clearly demonstrates that such offences will not be tolerated by us or the courts. I hope the victim feels a sense of justice being served."

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