Violent prisoner stashed spikes and bladed weapon in Leyland jail

The weapons were found in October after Jamie Biddle, 29, gestured at a probation officer with a homemade triple bladed implement during a meeting at HMP Garth in Leyland, telling him: "It's nothing personal but out you go."

Prosecuting, Lisa Worsley said officers had to intervene as Biddle then barricaded himself into a meeting room with furniture.

Afterwards, during a cell search, staff found a six inch metal spike and an eight inch solid spike.

He pleaded guilty to two assaults on an emergency worker, and three of possessing a weapon.

A month earlier he had spat on a prison officer who tried to intervene when he barricaded himself in his cell and tried to set a blaze, triggering the fire alarm.

Biddle, originally from Hereford, was given an indeterminate sentence of three and a half years in 2007 for wounding, after causing severe head injuries to a man.

He was eventually moved to an open prison, HMP Sudbury in Derbyshire, but escaped and was later put back into a secure prison environment.

He also committed arson in his cell in 2018.

Preston Crown Court heard he has now served 13 years - the equivalent of a 26 year sentence - and was frustrated at the prison system.

Representing himself by video link, Biddle said the weapons were for 'protection' and that he had spat at the door, not the officer.

Judge Simon Newell said: " It's unfair to take out what frustrations you have on an individual officer rather than the system as a whole.

"It's not for me to express any views about the nature of the sentence you got and how long you've been serving, and the frustrations that have arisen in the course of what is now a very long sentence.

"You've been in custody for a total of 13 years - that would be the equivalent of a 26 year sentence. I find that rather odd.

"One can certainly understand the information I have why there might be frustrations you have. I can't comment on that other than it is inappropriate to take matters out on prison and probation officers when the grievance is with the people who run the prison system."