AN inmate seen with a noose tied round his neck bit the buttock of a prison officer who dashed in to his cell to remove the ligature.

Kevin Leslie Hall also flailed his feet around as the officer and colleagues went to his aid in his cell at Durham Prison.

Shaun Dryden, prosecuting, said the officer looking through the hatch saw Hall sitting on the cell floor with the noose.

But following the attack, in attempting to break the ligature, the officer was given a tetanus injection and has undergone subsequent hepatitis checks.

Durham Crown Court heard he remains uncertain if he has been infected, eight months after the incident.

The court heard Hall was responsible for an attack on a female officer at Holme House Prison, near Stockton, in almost identical circumstances, in 2017.

Having enjoyed six months liberty since his release from his previous sentence, Hall, 32, of St Ives Place, Murton, was jailed for two years after admitting assault causing actual bodily harm.