An inmate with HIV squirted a disgusting mix of urine and faeces over prison guards.



Miles Atkinson left the officers fearing they had contracted the virus by claiming the mixture he fired from a toothpaste tube also contained semen.



The 34-year-old from Wythenshawe then said: "I don't get it, it was only s***t, p*** and a bit of s****."

He was pictured smiling and laughing on the phone as he walked free from court with a suspended sentence.



The convicted woman beater's 'humiliated' victims faced an agonising week-long wait after tests to get the all-clear, reports the Liverpool Echo.



Atkinson was on remand in custody at HMP Altcourse in Merseyside on July 27 last year, after twice assaulting the mum of his child, Liverpool Crown Court heard.



Previous "unpredictable and bizarre behaviour" meant he was on "three-person lockdown" Edward Haygarth, prosecuting, said.



That meant he had to be escorted by three officers, who took him from his cell to a medical department at around 4pm.



On the way back he became "agitated", started speaking what "appeared to be nonsense" and was reluctant to go in his cell.



The wing manager talked to him but as he went to close the door, Atkinson "sprayed the contents of a toothpaste tube at him".

(Image: Liverpool Echo)



Mr Haygarth said: "Regrettably most of the mixture subsequently landed on the officers."



The wing manager was hit in the face and on his shirt and trousers, while a "considerable amount" went in another male officer's mouth.



A female officer said she too was hit in her face, arms and legs, while it also splashed on the right arm of another woman.

The guards went to wash, shower and change their clothes, before the two male officers and first female attended hospital.

Mr Haygarth said they had to undergo blood tests and receive Hepatitis B injections.



He said: "They were to a large extent precautionary measures required to some extent because the defendant had been announcing to the prison he was HIV positive. Regrettably it appears that is the case."

Another officer spoke with Atkinson at around 4.50pm and asked him if he had realised what he had done.

(Image: Liverpool Echo)

He claimed it also contained semen, replying: "It's only been there for three days, what have I done wrong?"

When interviewed last November - now at HMP Forest Bank in Salford - he said he was aiming for the wing manager.

He said at the time he was not of sound mind and had been trying for two weeks to get medication for his mental illness and HIV.

Atkinson was charged with four counts of administering a noxious substance with intent to the four guards.

However, prosecutors accepted a guilty plea to one count, in relation to the wing manager, and three counts of battery.

Prosecutors said the mixture was not analysed and it was accepted it did not contain semen.

The wing manager said he was "humiliated", while he and his colleagues who went to hospital feared contracting HIV.

(Image: Liverpool Echo)



Mr Haygarth said: "All three talk about being extremely worried, stressed and anxious, particularly until being given the all clear."



The woman said it was the worst incident in over a decade working at the prison and that she would rather have been punched.



Atkinson, of Bideford Drive, Wythenshawe, Manchester, received a hospital order in 1999 for affray.



The dad was on remand in Altcourse for two counts of battery, for which he later received 12 weeks in prison.

He was handed a two-year community order, with a mental health treatment programme, in November, for two counts of possessing a bladed article and two of public disorder.



William Staunton, defending, urged the judge to spare his client jail, saying his mental health was now stable and he was taking his medication.



A medical report said he had a delusional "paranoid type" disorder, with mental and behavioural disorders, "due to multiple drug misuse".

(Image: Liverpool Echo)



Judge Brian Cummings, QC, questioned whether this was mitigation and Mr Staunton conceded: "He has brought this mental chaos upon himself."



The lawyer said Atkinson, who had thought people in the jail would harm his newborn son, now looked on it with "revulsion" and wished to apologise.

He said he didn't receive his medication until a week after he entered the prison on July 19 and had "a history of dirty protests".

Asked why that would require him to load a toothpaste tube, Mr Staunton said: "A scatological art form perhaps? One does not know."

Judge Cummings told Atkinson he "squirted" the mixture at the prison guards, in an attack known as "potting".

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He accepted it did not include semen, but said: "By your words you raised in the victims the fear that they may be infected with HIV.

"That fear persisted for in real terms a week, until the results of blood tests."

The judge said he committed "serious, disgusting offences" but his mental health was a significant contributing factor.

Judge Cummings handed him two years in prison, suspended for two years, and a mental health treatment programme.

Kat Smithson, director of policy and campaigns at the National AIDS Trust said: "These officers have been subjected to degrading and harmful behaviour.

"It is deeply concerning that, to add to the distress already caused to them, they have relied on inaccurate and misleading information on the level of HIV risk they face.

"Urine and faeces do not transmit the HIV virus. This attack, while understandably shocking, did not expose anyone to HIV risk.

"HIV is passed on through sex, sharing needles and sometimes during pregnancy, childbirth or breast feeding, not through this type of contact with bodily fluids.

“All prison staff should receive basic training on blood borne viruses so they can identify transmission risks and how to prevent them.”