A prisoner set fire to his own cell and then punched a guard who came to help him.
Prosecutor David Mainstone told Mold Crown Court prison guard Jasmine Richards smelt smoke while on duty at HMP Berwyn in Wrexham on September 1. She opened the observation panel in Craig Ford's cell door and saw the fire.
Staff smashed the observation panel's glass of the 30-year-old from Wavertree's cell, and pushed a hose through the gap. In the end the door was opened but Ford "flew out aggressively" and punched Ms Richards in the nose, NorthWalesLive reports.
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Mr Mainstone said officers restrained him and searched the cell, where they found a piece of sharpened cutlery, with some cloth wrapped around one end as a handle. The court heard the fire had been started most likely with a vape on one corner of a book.
In a statement prison guard Ms Richards, who suffered a swollen and bruised nose, said she believed she had had a good rapport with Ford. But he had abused his place on a wing offering additional support to inmates.
Recorder Simon Mills jailed Ford, 30, of Cinema Drive, Wavertree, for 20 months for possession of a bladed article in prison with a further five months for arson and five months for assaulting an emergency worker.
Matthew O'Neill, defending, said his client's mental health had not been "in the right place". He hadn't intended to assault the officer and regrets his actions.
O'Neill told the court Ford grew up without his mother for a long period and his father was absent. He fell in with the wrong crowd, and has spent most of his adult life incarcerated, but wants to live a different life now.
Recorder Mills told Ford it was "almost ironic" that he was sentencing someone to prison when they are already a prisoner for a previous offence. He said he knows the defendant had been "stressed and anxious" and that he set fire to his cell to "provoke a response".
But he then used substantial force with a "nasty" punch. But he said having the blade was his worst offence.
Recorder Mills said: "If somebody is in possession of a blade like this in prison it's a matter of enormous concern not just for the prison authorities but for the staff and for the public."
Craig Ford was jailed for two years in January 2022 after pleaded guilty to attempted burglary. He was caught trying to break into a home on a Ring doorbell before trying to flee the scene on a child's pink bike.
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