A MAN who badly abused his own baby son has been battered half to death by fellow inmates who took him hostage.

Tony Smith, who tortured his weeks-old son so badly his legs had to be amputated, was given a beating by two inmates at Swaleside Prison on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.

They are said to have pounced on him before tying him to a chair and battering him with an improvised cosh made from cans of tuna inside a sock as well as metal bars.

Smith suffered a fractured eye socket, broken ribs and a broken jaw.

A jail insider told the Daily Star: “The inmates were wrongly housed in the vulnerable prisoner B wing.

“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. The men are now in segregation pending an investigation as to how this happened.”

A prison service spokesman told The Sun Online: “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 his partner Jody Simpson were locked up in February for ten years each for abusing and torturing their own son.

Tony Smith Jr was just 41 days old when he was admitted to hospital with multiple organ failure, numerous fractures and sepsis.

His parents had swung him around so violently by the legs, they were broken in eight places and later he had to have a double amputation.

Jody Simpson, 24, and her 47-year-old partner Antony Smith showed no remorse for the injuries inflicted on their son.

Doctors found the 41-day-old baby had developed septicaemia and several infections, and he was put into intensive care at Evelina London Children's Hospital.

A series of X-rays found eight fractures, including a dislocated ankle believed to have been caused by twisting or being “yanked".

The child survived but remained in hospital until February 2015, and needed to be anaesthetised 11 times.

Both his legs were amputated and he is partially deaf.