A PROLIFIC criminal who was frustrated by the amount of time he had spent behind bars started a fire in his prison cell endangering the lives of staff and prisoners.

Richard Huxley was jailed in 2006 after he was convicted of attempted robbery and assault.

At the time, the judge ruled how Huxley must serve a minimum of two years but imposed an indeterminate sentence for public protection.

This type of sentence has since been abolished.

Eleven years later, the 30-year-old is still behind bars having now spent more than a third of his life in jail.

Ryan Rothwell, defending, described Huxley, who has a parole board meeting on June 7, as living in a 'vicious cycle'.

He said: “On one hand he is unsuitable to be released because he is unstable and the longer he is in custody the more unstable he seems to become."

The court heard how Huxley, who pleaded guilty to arson, set fire to his cell at HMP Risley on May 10, 2016, just before 6.45pm.

The blaze involved plastic items creating 'toxicity and smoke' and officers were forced to wear protective smoke hoods.

Chris Taylor, prosecuting, said: "The smoke was so bad they had to crawl on the floor and use sweeping motions to find him and pull him from the cell.

“The north side the E-wing, involving about 75 prisoners, had to be evacuated and re-located and two fire tenders were automatically sent to the prison."

The damage and clean-up operation cost £4,729.

When interviewed Huxley said he wanted to kill himself because of a combination of frustration and his medication as he no longer cared.

Sentencing Huxley, formerly from Ellesmere Port, to 15 months imprisonment judge Robert Warnock said he would not comment on whether the period he has served behind bars was justified.

He said: “You may not care for your own welfare and I accept it involved in a suicide attempt but what does matter is that the lives of others were endangered and I do care about that.”

The court heard how Huxley, who has been diagnosed with two different personality disorders, has 16 previous convictions for 21 offences including assault, wounding and affray.

His first offence was at the age of 14.

Huxley was taken from his mum who had a drug addiction when he was nine and repeatedly ran away from his foster home to be with her.

After getting involved with the ‘wrong crowd’, by the age of 11 he was smoking marijuana.

Huxley was kicked out of his foster home when he was 14 and his life spiralled out of control.