An inmate who viciously attacked a prison governor, leaving him with serious injuries, has been jailed for three years.

Thomas Howard launched an attack on HMP Wayland governor Paul Cawkwell in the canteen of the prison in Griston.

The governor was rushed to hospital after sustaining serious fractures to his eye socket and cheek bones in the attack on July 27.

Howard, 34, appeared at Norwich Crown Court on December 20 and pleaded guilty to two counts of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm – one in relation to the attack on the governor and the other to an attack on July 23 on another member of staff, who also sustained cheek bone fractures.

Howard, who was a serving prisoner at the time of the incidents, was sentenced to three years in prison.