A This Morning guest opened up about how he was left in a coma for three weeks after being battered by a group of children – but made it clear that he doesn’t blame them.   

Former prison officer Ryan Goodenough, who was just 21 at the time and was left with life-changing injuries, appeared on the ITV show on Monday alongside former inmate and journalist Raphael Rowe before to talk about their opinion on US-style superman prisons being brought into the UK. 

Ryan – who confessed that he has always wanted to work with children – had trained nine weeks before starting his job at the youth correctional facility in Milton Keynes, which was a secured training center that focused on therapy and rehabilitation. 

He was working 7am to 10pm when he got moved to a different unit during his shift. He explained that the vibe felt ‘heightened’, and when he took them outside to the astro turf, one of the boys was trying to climb the fence. 

Ryan explained that he tried to verbally bring him down, then guided him off the fence, when suddenly he had five boys ‘laying into’ him, but managed to keep on his feet. 

Host Ben Shephard pointed out: ‘They were children that attacked you physically and that attack led you going to hospital and then ending up in a coma.’

A This Morning guest (pictured) opened up about how they were left in a coma for three weeks after being battered by a group of children – but made it clear that he doesn’t blame them

The former prison officer appeared on the ITV show on Monday to talk about his opinion on US-style superman prisons being brought into the UK with Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley (pictured)

Ryan said: ‘Yeah they still are children. So I still work with children. When I went to hospital, a coma wasn’t on my mind.

‘I thought I had concussion and I started to bleed out my nose and started to vomit blood.

‘I got taken through just to be checked  and I got put on my back, laid down, looked up, seen the bright lights, kind of like what I’m looking at now, I look left, look right and suddenly I just fell asleep. 

‘And I woke up three weeks later.’ 

Host Cat was keen to know if he thought that supermax prisons were a good idea. 

Ryan said: ‘My experience is individual to me. My personal appearance is that we have to approach things from a point of therapy. 

‘We have to be trauma informed.

‘When we look at prisons, whether they work or don’t, that’s up for conversation.

Ryan told Cat and Ben: ‘I said quite strongly, I stand by it to this day, they were fighting the uniform, not me’

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‘But what we see is individuals who are suffocated by trauma, living with trauma.

‘When we don’t put enough place to support that, situations like that happen. 

‘I was in court reading victims personal statement when the boys were being sentenced, when the children were in court.

‘I said quite strongly, I stand by it to this day, they were fighting the uniform, not me. 

‘So it’s that, perception of anger and aggression is always what you see on the surface, is anger and aggression. You label them as aggressive, bad children.

‘Or bad humans, bad people, but beneath that, there is usually fear, anxiety, worries, concerns, emotions we all feel. 

‘But some people aren’t developed enough by the right people to do that.’ 

He added: ‘My role was to support them, help them, the way we do that, we see them as children.

‘That’s why I’m heavy on using the word children, I do stand by the fact they were fighting the uniform. 

‘Not because it was specifically that uniform, but I was authority, telling them what to do. 

‘We’re all products of our environment, some of us our victims of it.’

This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.