A PRISON warder held hostage and tortured by a violent criminal -- who successfully blamed Bolton Council for his life of crime -- has started legal action against the Home Office, claiming the prison was negligent.

Malcolm Joyce, aged 41, from Northumberland, is claiming £100,000 damages after he was held for 19 hours by violent thug Marvin Pomfret who, during his teenage years, committed a staggering 100 crimes in Bolton.

Pomfret, together with his accomplice, Greg Newlands, aged 19, of Glasgow, bound and blindfolded Mr Joyce and cut his throat using a home-made knife.

The two thugs also beat him repeatedly with baseball bats while holding him captive in an office at Castington Young Offenders' Institution in Acklington, Northumberland, in November 1997.

Prison officers said the prisoners held a kangaroo court in which they sentenced Mr Joyce to death. At one stage the two men pulled down his blindfold and made him watch as they threw darts at him.

Negotiators tried frantically to end the siege, eventually deciding to send riot officers into the barricaded room to get Mr Joyce out.

Mr Joyce is now taking legal action, claiming staff at the institution were not trained adequately enough to deal with such a situation.

He has said items left in the unlocked office posed a security risk. The Home Office has denied liability.

Mr Joyce, who has yet to return to work and is suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, has been supported by his union, The Prison Officers' Association.

Pomfret was jailed for life under the "two strikes" legislation. He was already serving four years for wounding with intent.

Yet despite his crimes, Pomfret was awarded £75,000 damages from Bolton education chiefs after he claimed they did not provide him with an education which stretched his mind.

The 23-year-old said his criminal career would have been halted had he been sent to a special residential school as a gifted but disturbed child. Instead he was sent to Stocks Park, a special day school in Horwich.