An inmate at Bedford prison was given an eight week sentence on Friday, July 30, 2021, for attacking a prison officer at the height of the Covid pandemic last year.
Ben Groves, 32, from Stevenage, who has spent the last 12 years in prison, intervened when he saw prison officers dealing with another inmate on a first floor corridor.
Luton Crown Court heard he clambered onto the netting, that prevents people and objects falling onto the ground floor.
Prosecutor Andrew Jordan said: “The prison officer was restraining another inmate. He was grabbed by the defendant who tried to pull him into the netted area. The officer managed to stay on the safe side and was helped by colleagues.”
But he suffered scratches, bruising and a pain in his back and was taken to Accident and Emergency. He was placed on restricted movement for a few days.
Groves was placed in the segregation unit for three months at the prison.
He appeared at court via a video link from Nottingham Prison having pleaded guilty to assault on an emergency worker on June 17, 2020.
The court heard Groves, previously of Ripon Road, Stevenage, had been given an indeterminate prison sentence for public protection in 2009 for slashing an night club bouncer with a broken glass bottle outside the Base nightclub in Hatfield.
Defending, Esther Schutzer-Weissmann said Grove had spent a great part of his adult life in custody.
He is due to have a parole board hearing next month.
“In June last year he had been suffering, particularly as a result of Covid. He had attempted suicide and was on suicide watch.”
Ms Schutzer-Weissmann said he had made an error of judgement and expressed his remorse.
But she said Groves is now an “enhanced prisoner” who was studying genetics as part of the Cambridge University Learning Together Programme, where colleges work with prisoners.
Judge John Lodge sentenced him to eight weeks, but said Groves must have his parole hearing in the near future.
He said: “Prisons were a very difficult place to be at the height of the lockdown.
Prison officers were carrying out a particularly difficult task.”
