An inmate who carried a home-made knife inside Channings Wood Prison has been ordered to serve an extra nine months.

Anthony Doyle was nearing the end of a sentence for burglary when he was caught with the weapon during a confrontation at the prison sick bay.

He became angry at having to wait too long to receive medication and officers were called after he started swearing and shouting. They found the three-inch ’shank’ in his waistband as they grappled him to the ground.

Doyle, aged 32, from Liverpool, was serving a 30 months’ sentence for burglaries at Kingskerswell and Newton Abbot when he was caught with the blade on May 17 last year.

He admitted possession of an offensive weapon in prison and was jailed for nine months by Judge Geoffrey Mercer, QC, at Exeter Crown Court.

Doyle completed his sentence later in 2016 and was released, so he will now have to go back to jail.

The judge told him: ‘You were in possession of a very unpleasant home-made weapon described as a shank. I have seen a photograph of it.

‘You will understand that courts take a very firm view on prisoners who have weapons such as this in their possession. Prison officers have a difficult enough task maintaining law and order.

‘Anyone caught with a weapon like this in prison will receive a further prison sentence.’

Mr Paul Grumbar, said officers recovered the weapon when it fell from Doyle’s waistband as he was being restrained at the medical unit. It was a piece of sharpened steel about three inches long.

Mr James Taghdissian, defending, said Doyle did not produce or brandish the weapon, which he had made and kept to protect himself from violence from other inmates.

He said Doyle had mental health issues and became frustrated at having to wait a long time in a queue to pick up medication.

He said: ‘He required medical help and was quite irritated and being kept waiting for medication. He had this piece of metal for deterrent purposes and it was dislodged when he was detained. It was not used or going to be used.’

Doyle was jailed in 2015 for two raids on occupied houses during the previous November 2014. In the first he terrified a family living in Bushmead Avenue, Kingskerswell, before stealing computers they used for work and school.

He went on to raid a flat above a newsagent in Newton Abbot while wearing a stocking mask. The brave occupant fought him off and partially removed the mask, which Doyle dumped nearby. He was identified by DNA from it.

Both offences happened when Doyle was on prison licence for offences committed in Merseyside. He had come to Devon to visit friends and stole to fund a crack cocaine habit.