A prison officer wept giving evidence in court – as she told how she was bitten twice by a man shackled to her with handcuffs.

Julien Alldis, 19, had been remanded into custody in Court Eight at Maidstone Crown Court in June last year.

He had been wearing two sets of handcuffs in the dock, one of them attached to prison custody officer Kelly Simmonds.

She told a jury at Canterbury Crown Court how Alldis, who denied the assault, began struggling as he was led away to the cells.

Ms Simmonds claimed: “He kept pulling and I told him three times to stop but he wouldn’t. He was just p****d off.

“He was thrusting about shouting and screaming: ’Get off me.Get off me, you ----’ and trying to get out of the handcuffs. I kept telling him to calm down.

“Then, during the struggle, he bit my left forearm. I shouted to a colleague: 'He’s biting me, Tom, he's f***** biting me' ", she said.

Now a jury has found Alldis, of of Queenborough Road, Halfway, guilty of the assault and he has been jailed for three years – after the judge heard he has a previous conviction for an assault on a guard.

The jury was told how a panic button was triggered and other officers went to the assistance of Ms Simmons and brought Alldis to the ground.

The 5ft 3inch officer broke down as she recalled the moment the defendant sunk his teeth into her thumb where she was wearing a ring.

“I don’t know how my thumb got into his mouth but I was aware of saliva and then I heard the grinding of teeth against metal.”

“I don’t know how my thumb got into his mouth but I was aware of saliva and then I heard the grinding of teeth against metal" - Kelly Simmonds

She said she pleaded with other officers to free one set of cuffs which attached her to Alldis, before noticing the bite marks had drawn blood.

Ms Simmonds added that when she looked at the ring “It didn’t look like a ring now. It just looked like a piece of steel which was all mangled.”

She told the jury that after the incident, she was led back into Court Eight when paramedics were called and she later went to Maidstone Hospital for X-rays, tests and injections.

Prosecutor Trevor Wright said Alldis had the ring not been on Ms Simmonds’ thumb “her injury might have been much worse”.

Alldis claimed that while he was going to the cells he was thrown against a wall, punched, kneed and had his testicles grabbed.

He told the jury that had been acting in self-defence but the jury rejected his account.