Prison officer victim of brutal organised attack at Missouri jail

Four inmates have been charged with assaulting a prison officer after a video was released showing a savage beating in a Missouri jail.

In the video showing the gruesome assault, a prison guard can be seen being relentlessly punched and kicked by a group of inmates.

He is pushed onto a table after having come down to a common area from a first floor balcony and beaten in a gruesome assault.

According to KMBC, Jackson County prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said: 'I've watched that, of course, numerous times, and it really makes me angry.'

It comes after a jail expert warned earlier this year that the Jackson County Detention Center was overcrowded and suffering from a lack of staff.

It was also raided earlier in the year after guards and prisoners were found sneaking phones behind bars.

The four men charged with the assault - which occurred on August 26 - are Stephen A. Curtner, 20; Rodney V. Rodgers, 24, Osiris N. Sneed, 20; and Tyrone E. Willard, 20.

They face third-degree assault charges and could be jailed for up to seven years on top of their current sentences.

The guard who was beaten is expected to recover, but he was reportedly guarding the entire fifth floor - where the most dangerous inmates are kept - by himself.

The prisoners charged with the assault were also supposed to be in the cells.

Jackson County sheriff Mike Sharp, however, said that the incident could have been a lot worse.

He explained: 'If they would have gotten up to that rail – they would have thrown him over that rail. And there is no telling what would have happened.'

The sheriff also said it had been a planned effort by the inmates to assault the guard.