A lag cackled after spitting in the face of a prison officer who’d just delivered a magazine to his cell, a court heard.

Just days later, HMP Bullingdon inmate Connor Hodgkins, 30, tried to barricade himself in his cell then swung a punch at one of the two gaolers as they pushed their way inside.

Hodgkins, who has more than 70 offences on his rap sheet, complained ‘where are my human rights?’ during his sentencing hearing at Oxford Crown Court this week.

He was jailed for 13 months by Judge Ian Pringle QC, who said of the spitting assault: “It went into his eye. A deeply unpleasant form of assault which you simply laughed about.”

Earlier, prosecutor Cathy Olliver told the court that on March 11 last year a guard at HMP Bullingdon, near Bicester, was delivering mail to Hodgkins’s cell on the healthcare wing.

The prisoner took exception to the mail being posted through the hatch in his cell door and started shouting and swearing. “What the f*** is this? Get this out of here,” he shouted.

After the final item, a magazine, was pushed through the hatch, Hodgkins ran towards the cell door and spat through the small opening.

 

HMP Bullingdon

HMP Bullingdon

 

The spittle hit the male guard in the eye and face. The prisoner was heard laughing ‘I’ll have you, f***er’ from behind the locked door.

In a victim personal statement, the gaoler said he felt spitting was a ‘disgusting’ way to assault somebody who was simply carrying out their role as a public servant.

Just days later, on March 14, Hodgkins had blocked the window in his cell door. He then threatened to punch the prison officers who asked him to remove the obstruction.

The two gaolers managed to push past the barricaded door but were met by the pugilistic prisoner, who swung a ‘full force’ punch and hit one of the men in the face.

Hodgkins, formerly of Littlemore Hospital, Oxford, but appearing in court via video link from HMP Bullingdon, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to assaulting an emergency worker. His previous convictions included assaults and robbery.

Gordana Austin, mitigating, said her client had been diagnosed with ‘borderline intellectual disability’, a form of learning disability, after mental health reports were commissioned by his lawyers.

Judge Pringle said that it was important the probation service was provided with a copy of that psychological report so they ‘understand some of the difficulties’ he faced.

He imposed four months’ imprisonment for the spitting and nine months for the punch, with the sentences to run one after another.

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