A dangerous rapist has been jailed for a second time for a vicious attack on a woman employee at a jail where he was serving a life sentence.

Martin Walsh attacked the woman in a sex offenders’ treatment unit at Channings Wood prison in Devon and left her so terrified she had to give up her job and move away from the area.

She was terrified she was going to suffer the same fate as Walsh’s first victim who was dragged into bushes and subjected to a hour-long sexual ordeal in Stanley, County Durham in 2006.

Walsh was given a life sentence by the judge in that case after he was caught by allotment holders who were alerted by two 16-year-old boys who found the victim after the attack.

He was serving his sentence at Channings Wood, near Newton Abbot, when he tricked his second victim into letting him into the unit to use the toilet.

He came out moments later and told her there was an unconscious person inside and when she went to investigate he moved to block her only exit from the building.

She knew about his previous offence so when Walsh grabbed her in a headlock she was convinced she was going to be raped or killed.

She tried to reach a panic alarm on a wall but he pulled her away from it but in the struggle she was able to break free and escape. Walsh later told prison officers he had wanted to rape and kill her.

Walsh was diagnosed with a personality disorder and paranoid schizophrenia shortly after the attack and is currently being held in Rampton high security hospital.

The 30-year-old admitted assault causing actual bodily harm and was jailed for two years by Judge Geoffrey Mercer, QC, at Exeter Crown Court.

The sentence is what is known as a hybrid order which means Walsh will remain at Rampton but would be transferred back to jail if he became well enough to be released.

The judge said the sentence is largely academic because Walsh is still serving a life sentence. He ordered full details of this attack to be given to any parole board that considers his eventual release.

He told Walsh: ’This case causes the greatest concern. What you did to her has had a devastating effect on her life. The aggravating features are that you were a serving prisoner and the psychological effect on the victim.’

Mr Stephen Dent, prosecuting, said Walsh was at Channings Wood when he attacked the woman in March 2014. He cornered her in a block used to treat sex offenders after asking to come in to use the toilet.

He said: ’She started to become very scared. She felt trapped. She approached him with the intention of walking past and getting out but he went towards her, lunged and grabbed her wrist.

’He tried to hold her and she flailed her arms, trying to reach a panic alarm as he pulled her away. He grabbed her around the neck. He held her neck in the crook of his elbow and she felt pressure on it.

’As they struggled she wriggled free and realised that for a moment he did not have hold of her and she turned and ran out to get help.

’The following day there was an adjudication before the governor where he pleaded guilty to trying to detain the woman and said he wanted to rape and kill her.’

Mr Nicolas Gerasimidis, mitigating, said three psychiatrists had all concluded Walsh was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a personality disorder.

At the time he was suffering delusions at the time. The attack was not premeditated and was the result of his mental state.

Walsh was jailed for life with a minimum term of six years at Durham Crown Court for an attack in July 2006 on a 21-year-old woman whom he dragged into bushes at Tanfield, near Stanley, and raped.

He went on to drag her further into woodland before carrying out two more painful and humiliating sexual assaults. The judge in that case described him as very dangerous and said he had ruined his victim’s life.