A PRISON inmate has been ordered to serve an extra two years after he bit three officers during a violent scuffle.

Carl Barlow lashed out with his fists and feet and headbutted the guards at Channings Wood Prison near Newton Abbot as they were trying to restrain him.

One of the victims was so worried that he may have contracted HIV or hepatitis that he did not hug his heavily pregnant wife or his new born daughter for fear of infecting them.

Barlow attacked the officers as they were trying to usher him away from a disturbance in an open area and back to his cell.

They were trying to control the flow of prisoners through a gate but he barged head down at two of them before biting them and another guard who came to help.

He was only restrained after two more officers joined in the struggle, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Barlow, aged 30, of Savage Road, Plymouth, admitted affray and was jailed for two years by Recorder Mr Benjamin Newton at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him the offence was more serious because it was in prison and had caused the victims to fear for their health.

Barlow was serving an 11-year sentence passed at Plymouth Crown Court in 2013 for being part of a Liverpool-based drug dealing gang that made £1 million a year by flooding the city with heroin and crack.

Miss Bathsheba Cassel, prosecuting, said staff at Channings Wood were moving prisoners away from a disturbance outside two accommodation blocks on November 7, 2018 when Barlow became angry and violent.

He charged at two officers shouting ‘do you want to get it?’ before biting both on the hands in the ensuing struggle. He bit the thumb of a third officer who came to help.

He kicked, punched and headbutted the officers so hard they suffered knee ligament damage, a serious shoulder injury, and bruised ribs. They all needed hospital treatment and time off work.

Two have since left the prison service and the third tried to join the Ministry of Defence police but failed the medical because of his arm injury.

 Mr Nick Lewin, defending, said Barlow had not been involved in the violent incident outside the cell block but felt the officers were treating him as if he had.

He said:”He took great umbrage at their robust stopping of him as he went on his way. He is not a violent man by nature.”

Mr Lewin said the fears of the officers were unfounded because Barlow does not have HIV of hepatitis. He is currently back in Exeter prison, having been recalled because of this offence.