A prison officer has told a jury how he found Westgate inmate Dennis Robinson beaten and bloodied in his cell.

Two fellow inmates, Kenneth Burgess, 36, and Kamel Trott, 32, are on trial at Supreme Court accused of assaulting Robinson with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Robinson, 38, claimed during evidence last week that they ambushed him in his cell around 9.30 a.m during a recreation break on June 6, 2007.

He alleged that they took it in turns to punch him during an hourlong attack that put him in hospital for three weeks with injuries including a broken jaw and fractured eye socket.

After the incident, Robinson claimed his attackers pulled a table up outside his cell and sat playing cards, leaving him trapped inside until a prison officer came to lock up the cell block after the break.

Yesterday the officer in question, Wayne Parfitt, told the jury he saw Robinson sitting outside his cell reading a newspaper during the morning recreation break.

He also said he recalled seeing Burgess in a group of four men playing cards at a table across the way from Robinson's cell that same morning.

When he went to lock Robinson's door around 12.20 p.m., Mr. Parfitt said: "Robinson banged on the door and told me that he needed to go to the medical office. I first asked him why. When I looked in he was up to the glass and I saw an injury to the left side of his head."

Asked by Director of Public Prosecutions Rory Field what Robinson looked like when he found him, Mr. Parfitt replied: "He seemed to be a little scared and confused and nervous.

"He looked like he had been beat up. I saw the injury to the left side of his head and there was blood from the left side of his head."

The injured prisoner was subsequently escorted to the medical office.

Burgess's lawyer Elizabeth Christopher quizzed Mr. Parfitt about how often he did checks in the prison block that morning.

He replied: "Random. I can't really give a time." He agreed with her that he did not see Burgess or Trott go into Robinson's cell.

In answer to questions from Trott's lawyer Richard Horseman, Mr. Parfitt read from an officers' log that keeps track of prisoners' movements in the Echo Two block in question.

This showed Trott leaving for work at 9.30 a.m., and returning at 9.45 a.m. He was listed as leaving for the medical office at 11.25 a.m. and returning at 11.40 a.m.

Mr. Horseman asked: "Is there any doubt in your mind that Mr. Trott was out of Echo Two during these periods?"

Mr. Parfitt replied: "The record states that he had left."

Following up on this line of questioning, Mr. Field asked the witness if he saw Mr. Trott leave Echo Two.

Mr. Parfitt replied that he could not remember seeing him go out, and that when writing in the log book officers are facing into the unit with their back to the door.

Burgess and Trott deny the charge against them and the case continues.