THE jury in a trial of a prisoner accused of wounding prison officers with improvised weapons in bloody attacks at two different prisons, one of them in Worcestershire, heard his previous convictions included attacks on prison officers.

Daniel Matthews denies the assaults on eight prison officers at HMP Long Lartin and HMP Bristol.

The court previously heard that the 28-year-old is accused of throwing boiling water from a Thermos flask over prison officers at HMP Long Lartin, before stabbing them with a ‘shiv’ made of perspex.

On Tuesday, the focus of the trial was on the events at HMP Bristol on January 10 this year.

Prison officers Nathan Joyce, Mitchell Hussey and Liam Hutchinson recalled what happened and talked through CCTV and body worn footage during which officers could be heard shouting ‘get him on the ground!’, ‘get his hands!’ and ‘drop the weapon’.

Prison officer Nathan Joyce said the plan had been to go as a group and take Matthews from his cell to a segregation unit, after earlier making threats.

Defence barrister Timothy Banks put it to Mr Joyce the situation became “intense” after Matthews refused to show his hands, which Mr Joyce agreed.

But suggesting they should have retreated, Mr Banks put it to Mr Joyce that Christopher Hawkins, a fourth prison officer involved and the first to enter the cell, had attacked the defendant first with his baton.

“No sir,” Mr Joyce replied.

“He attacked us.”

READ MORE: 'Violent' Long Lartin prisoner accused of attacking eight prison officers with weapons

READ MORE: Man fined for being drunk and disorderly in Worcester

Mr Joyce added he and colleagues reacted by hitting Matthews with their batons to "disarm him" of a metal spike before he could stab Mr Hawkins "in the face, in the eye, or killed him”.

Mr Hutchinson said he suffered a wound to his leg, while Mitchell Hussey said he suffered a puncture wound to his neck and a laceration on the top of his back, with the jury shown images of their injuries.

Mr Mitchell also denied that it had been prison officers who had been the aggressors and the ones to escalate the situation after a “stand off”.

Detective Constable Lawrence Castle then gave evidence and said the weapon Matthews allegedly used in the attack was later found.

“It had been sharpened to a point, half of it had green cloth (around it) possibly bedding, to create a handle”, he said.

Tom Kenning concluded the prosecution's case by revealing Matthews' previous convictions included a number of assaults on prison officers in the last decade at various prisons, including at HMP Hewell.

Judge James Burbidge told the jury Matthews has decided to take the stand and is set to appear, via videolink, to give evidence this morning.

The trial continues.