A MACHYNLLETH man jailed for attacking a vulnerable pensioner started up a relationship with a female prison officer, a court has heard.

Kurt Jarman, 22, of Brynygog, who is serving a 10-year sentence for the brutal attack of pensioner Dilwyn Jones, sent text messages to Shauna Cleary, 25, at the privately-run men’s HM Prison Parc in Bridgend.

A court heard Cleary gave her number to the prisoner and sent him a string of messages on a phone he had hidden in his cell.

Prosecutor Joanna James said Jarman called Cleary in August last year and the relationship “gained momentum”. Cleary sent the prisoner two messages on 1 October, but the content was not known. She was arrested and her phone and laptop were seized.

Cleary, from Pontypridd, south Wales, admitted misconduct in public office.

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The court heard Cleary had been working at the G4S-run prison from August 2016 to November 2017.

Judge Williams said she had been “terribly compromised and vulnerable to being manipulated”.

Cleary was given a 16-week suspended prison sentence and ordered to do 15 days of rehabilitation activity.

Jarman, 22, is serving a 10-year prison sentence after he brutally attacked the then 77-year-old Dilwyn Jones in his own home in a savage three-hour assault.

He was jailed in 2016 after he threatened to kill Mr Jones, cut his neck with a Stanley knife, ransacked his house and marched him to a cashpoint.

The rugby player was drunk when he forced his way into the house in Machynlleth and punched his victim to the floor.

Jarman admitted possessing a mobile phone inside prison and was jailed for a further six months.