Four Toronto police court officers convicted of viciously beating a prisoner and using him as a human mop have been handed harsher sentences.

The officers were originally given conditional sentences, but the Ontario Court of Appeal found the sentences didn't fit the severity of the crime and ordered the men to serve jail time.

John Feeney, Thomas Findlay, Kamaljeet Kang and Jeffrey Martin must serve between 30 and 60 days in jail.

On Sept. 30, 2004, a prisoner in a holding cell at a Toronto court spilled juice on an officer, prompting Feeney to lead the officers in a brutal beating.

The prisoner was handcuffed and shackled, kicked in the face, punched in the back and face, and then was used as a mop to wipe the juice from the floor.

The judge in the original trial also found the court officers had tried to cover up their involvement by falsifying reports.

"The respondents held a position of authority conferred upon them by virtue of their important public duties, and they owed the victim, a prisoner entrusted in their custody, a duty to take care for his safety," the Appeal Court decision said.

"When officers entrusted with such duties commit a collective, premeditated, vicious and humiliating assault upon a defenceless prisoner, and then try to cover up their actions, a sentence emphasizing the principles of deterrence and denunciation is called for."