A PRISON officer was left with a bleeding puncture wound in his face after he was attacked by a convicted criminal armed with a four inch wood screw, a court heard.

Sharif Kalimba is accused of deliberately orchestrating a staff meeting at Durham Prison where he lunged at a member of staff whilst brandishing the makeshift weapon last June.

The 23-year-old is said to have hidden the wood screw in the waistband of his trousers and aimed for the officer’s face after he became “frustrated and agitated”.

Teesside Crown Court heard the prison officer, who was left bleeding and required hospital treatment, sustained a “puncture hole” to his face.

Vincent Ward, prosecuting, said 10 minutes after requesting the review meeting Kalimba lunged at one of the prisoner officers whilst holding the homemade weapon – a four inch wood screw which was partly secured inside a plastic container.

He said: “The defendant must have planned to do it because he deliberately took it into the resumed review.

“He wanted to do serious harm because he aimed it at the officer's face. It could have caused more injury than it thankfully did. It was very close to the eye.”

Giving evidence, the prison officer said: “I could sense something was going to happen. He was frustrated, agitated and had his head in his hands.

“He reached into his trousers to reach something, he jumped up with his right fist swinging around. It all happened so fast. I braced my arms which took most of the impact of the attack.

“Somebody said I was bleeding from just below my jaw. I had a look in the mirror, it was a scratch from around an inch under my eye to my jaw. There was a round puncture wound which was around 2mm in diameter.”

But Fiona Lamb, defending, argued Kalimba was not holding the weapon when he punched the prison officer and he only assumed the weapon was used because it was discovered later.

The court heard a second makeshift weapon made out of the remnants of a food tray was discovered by the same prison officer hidden in the wall of Kalimba’s cell just one month after the attack.

But the 23-year-old prisoner claimed he accidentally broke it the day before and the cleaners simply failed to clean it up.

The trial continues.