UK prisoners use sock filled with cans of tuna to savagely beat torturer who abused his baby son

Tony Smith was jailed for 10 years. Photo / Supplied

A prisoner who nearly beat his son to death has been attacked by his fellow UK inmates with "a sock filled with tuna cans" and metal bars.

Tony Smith, 47, tortured his baby, also called Tony Smith, so badly his legs had to be amputated and was jailed alongside the youngster's mother Jody Simpson, 24.

Two inmates at Swaleside Prison on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent in the UK are believed to have attacked Smith after being wrongly housed in the wing for vulnerable prisoners, The Star reports.

Tony Smith and Jody Simpson. Photo / Supplied

Smith survived the beating, but has been left with a fractured eye socket, broken ribs and a broken jaw.

A prison source told the newspaper: "They came into contact with Smith and held him hostage in his own cell for four hours.

"During that time they tied him to a chair and attacked him with a sock filled with tuna cans and metal bars. They also stamped all over him.

"Prison guards managed to get them off in the nick of time – he's lucky he didn't die."

An investigation is being launched into how the attack was allowed to take place, the Daily Mail reported.

A prison service spokesman told The Sun: 'Staff resolved an incident involving three prisoners at HMP Swaleside on 7 August.

'The incident has been referred to the police so it would be inappropriate to comment further.'

Smith and Simpson were each sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for what were described as 'a series of spiteful assaults' on their very young son.

Shocking pictures revealed the squalor inside the flat in Maidstone, Kent, where Smith and Simpson abused their baby.

They had denied causing or allowing serious physical harm to a child but were both unanimously found guilty less than an hour after a jury retired to consider verdicts.

Maidstone Crown Court in Kent heard that by the time baby Tony was seen by doctors at 41 days old, he was seconds from death with septicaemia.

He was grey, frothing at the mouth and grunting, with a 'shockingly swollen' body and in multiple organ failure.

It was only 'aggressive' medical treatment from the GP, paramedics and staff at Pembury Hospital in Kent and then London's Evelina Children's Hospital which saved his life.

The court heard the horrific fractures to both the youngster's thighbones and lower legs, right ankle, left thumb and two bones in a big toe were revealed by subsequent x-rays.

Experts later concluded they would have been caused by yanking, pulling and twisting, with considerable force and up to 10 days before he was finally taken to his doctor.

The dislocated fracture to the youngster's right lower leg and ankle may have even been inflicted by a swinging action.

Shocking pictures of the conditions inside the flat where Tony Smith was abused were released following his parents' sentencing. Photo / Supplied

Tony Smith was jailed for 10 years. Photo / Supplied

He was in so much pain from this one injury alone that he showed signs of distress even when sedated in hospital.

Sadly, the septicaemia was so severe that Tony, who has since been adopted and given a new identity, has been left with life-changing injuries.

As well as having had both legs amputated, his hip joints are so damaged by infection that they may not be able to even bear the weight of prosthetic limbs.

But in spite of his horrific start in life and facing on-going medical treatment and disability, the court heard how the youngster, now aged three, is thriving with his new family.