An inmate at a Suffolk prison who poured a mixture of urine and faeces over a woman prison officer has been jailed for 28 months.

Sentencing 32-year-old Ben Mash, Recorder Richard Atchley described the offence as “ unpleasant” and said the prison officer would have been worried about the of risk of infection.

Mash, of no fixed address, admitted administering a noxious substance, assault causing actual bodily harm and possessing an offensive weapon.

David Baird, prosecuting at Ipswich Crown Court, said the woman prison officer was on the lower level of a wing at HMP Highpoint in Suffolk in September last year when she felt a warm liquid on her neck and looked up and saw Mash laughing.

She ran to get assistance from colleagues and discovered that the liquid that had been poured over her contained a mixture of urine and faeces.

On October 29 2019 while Mash was a serving prisoner at HMP Peterborough he had become embroiled in a fight with ten other inmates during which he had hit a prison officer on the head with a metal pole.

Mash, who chose not to be legally represented, had nothing to say about the offences and told the judge: “Let’s just get on with it.”