A PRISONER at HMP Berwyn left an officer suffering from concussion after he jumped onto him from a desk and then rained punches at him, a court was told.

Daniel Jenkins, 26, was told his attack on Matthew Percival was “entirely unprovoked” and jailed him for nine months which he will have to serve consecutively to his current sentence imposed for another prison officer assault.

Thug Jenkins became embroiled in a fight that broke out in the textile workshop of the Wrexham prison complex on August 14 last year.

Prosecuting barrister David Mainstone said that Jenkins was initially a spectator to the trouble when one of the ring leaders was pulled away by Mr Percival.

But Jenkins climbed onto a desk and jumped on the officer.

“There was contact with his foot, but that was unintentional, yet he then punched the officer repeatedly on the head three times,” said Mr Mainstone.

The prison officer was left concussed and needed treatment at Glan Clwyd Hospital. Mold Crown Court heard he continued to have problems, including motion sickness when driving and confusion in the weeks after the attack.

The prosecutor said Jenkins was “no stranger to violence” and had racked up 10 convictions for 28 offences, including serving a six-year prison sentence for an aggravated burglary in which he assaulted a householder with a baseball bat.

In April this year he was convicted of assaulting a prison officer at another prison establishment.

Jenkins pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Defence barrister Ffion Tomos said that Jenkins should be given credit for his early guilty plea and that the principle of totality should be used in sentencing him.

Jenkins, she said, should have been dealt with for the current matter at the same time he was sentenced for his other assault on a prison officer.

“Since returning to HMP Cardiff he has done well and has completed eight different courses. He is engaging with the services and he apologises for his behaviour in Berwyn,” said Ms Tomos.

“His father had health problems at the time and the distance from his family home in Merthyr meant he could not have his family visiting.”