South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court

A PRISONER has appeared in court charged with assaulting five of his guards at a Suffolk open prison.

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Mark Bryan is accused of actual bodily harm on two of the security staff at Hollesley Bay, near Woodbridge.

The 31-year-old is also charged with three counts of assault by beating relating to three other male prison warders.

All the allegations are said to have occurred during an incident at the jail at around 10.10am on September 7 last year.

Bryan, who is now serving his sentence at Norwich prison, made his first appearance on the charges before South East Suffolk Magistrates’ Court in Ipswich.

District Judge David Cooper told him: “This is a case that is best dealt with at crown court.”

Bryan indicated he would be pleading not guilty to the charges.

No details of the previous offence which led to his current sentence were revealed to the court.

Bryan, who represented himself during the hearing, was summonsed to court to have the charges laid against him.

He claimed the case was a waste of taxpayers’ money. This was because he felt it could be dealt with by way of an adjudication process in a prison setting.

However, Bryan was told the Crown Prosecution Service had decided to pursue the matter through the court system.

His next hearing is due to be before South East Suffolk Magistrates’ Court on February 14.

Bryan is scheduled to appear via a video link.

The case is due to be committed to Ipswich Crown Court on that day.

At the end of Monday’s hearing he was remanded back into custody.