An inmate at a Suffolk prison who was holding a sharpened plastic knife when he tried to grab a prison officer’s keys has been jailed for 12 weeks.

Shaun Lloyd, who was serving a four-and-a-half year sentence at HMP Highpoint at Stradishall, was being taken from an exercise yard to a segregation unit when he lunged at the officer, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

He was quickly tackled by other officers and it was then discovered he’d been holding a sharpened handle which Lloyd said was a broken plastic eating knife.

Lloyd denied trying to stab the prison officer and said he’d been trying to grab his keys because he wanted to be moved to another prison.

Lloyd, 27, of Victoria Street, Harwich, admitted unauthorised possession of an offensive weapon namely a sharpened plastic implement on May 16 2017 and was jailed for 12 weeks.

Kelly Fernandez-Lee for Lloyd said her client had been released from prison on parole in March last year and was working as a barber.

“He is trying to mend his ways,” said Miss Fernandez-Lee.