Jail attack victim 'was guarding 71 inmates'

Beverley Gough, 50, has called for better protection for officers after her husband Steve, 49, was left badly injured in an assault in Armley jail, Leeds, last Tuesday.

Mr Gough was left in a critical condition with bleeding on his brain and fractured eye sockets. He was allowed home from hospital on Friday and is recovering at home in Brighouse, near Halifax.

"I've always worried, in the 13 years he's been a prison officer, this would happen," said Mrs Gough.

"Steve was working on a corridor by himself with up to 71 inmates; he is extremely lucky that we aren't arranging his funeral. We can't thank his colleagues enough for what they did. They saved his life."

She added: "We are very angry, this should have never been allowed to happen. Inmates are in prison to protect society, but who is protecting our prison officers?"

Mrs Gough said it was going to be a long road for recovery for her husband.

"I'm so thankful to the doctors, nurses and his colleagues for saving his life."

She claimed cuts to officer numbers had put staff in danger from inmates.

The attack came three years after the Goughs lost daughter Naomi, 19, in a car crash in Halifax after her Renault Clio hit a crash barrier.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice declined to comment on the claim that Mr Gough was guarding up to 71 prisoners.

She said: "Violence in prisons is not tolerated in any form. Assaults on prison staff are taken very seriously and the incident is now subject to a police investigation."

Two men, aged 39 and 25, have been arrested and charged in connection with the attack and will appear before Leeds Magistrates' Court on Friday.