Prison bosses are investigating footage which appears to show an inmate eating human excrement in return for Spice.

Highly disturbing footage, which the M.E.N. has decided not to publish, appears to show a prisoner at HMP Hindley consuming a sandwich said to be filled with excrement while laughing inmates jeer him on.

The mobile phone footage shows one prisoner gagging while consuming the sandwich as other inmates can be heard screaming and laughing at the category C pison in Bickershaw, Wigan .

One former inmate at Hindley says the institution is ‘flooded’ with spice, a highly-addictive synthetic cannabis, adding that prisoners are willing to undergo horrific acts of humiliation just to get their hands on it.

The M.E.N. has now handed the footage to the Prison Service, which has launched an investigation.

It is the latest in a long line of incidents involving Spice at prisons in Greater Manchester - with both inmates and prison staff warning how the powerful drug is causing havoc.

And one former inmate at the HMP Hindley has told the M.E.N that some inmates are so addicted to getting high that they are being exploited by taking part in cruel pranks and punishments.

He said: “This kind of thing happens on a daily basis inside. People have had their heads shaved and have drunk urine, anything to get hold of some spice.

“You see people falling over and having fits. The staff do nothing about it.

“It’s actually harder to get tobacco then it is to get spice, which costs about £200 an ounce. Hindley is flooded with spice. I’ve seen people ‘dying’ and getting electric shock treatment to bring them back.”

There have been a number of recent tragedies at HMP Hindley, which opened in the 1960s and has capacity for around 670 prisoners.

In March, an inmate named as Anthony Hill, 35, from Liverpool, died at the prison.

It understood he was found hanging. An investigation is continuing.

The tragedy followed the death of another Merseyside prisoner at the jail in February last year.

Stephen Connell, 20, from Birkenhead, was found hanged in his cell after he was convicted of burglary. He was taken to hospital but died two days later and his family went on to allege that prison officers ‘turned a blind eye to his self-harm’.

(Image: Manchester Evening News)

The prison, which has a capacity of more than 600, is for category C adult male prisoners with sentences of four years or less, as well as 18-21-year-olds with sentences of up to four years.

The M.E.N. has previously exposed how the use of spice is rife inside the privately-run Forest Bank prison in Salford.

After we were handed footage of the man eating feaces at Hindley, we forwarded it to the Prison Service. It has now launched an ‘urgent’ investigation to identify those involved.

Last year the Ministry of Justice set out a range of measures in the Prison Safety and Reform white paper designed to tackle the scale of the drugs problem in jails.

Mandatory drug testing of inmates has been introduced while 300 drug detection dogs have been trained to detect psychoactive substances.

A spokesman for the MoJ declined to comment. However the MEN understands that staff at HMP Hindley have been made aware of the footage and are now investigating.