Crossword Genius

Court official sees Jack absconding from prison with strike over (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

bailiff

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'court official' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'prison with strike over' is the wordplay.
'prison with' becomes 'ail' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'strike' becomes 'biff' (I've seen this in other clues).
'over' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'ail' put within 'biff' is 'BAILIFF'.

'sees jack absconding from' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for bailiff that I've seen before include "Possibly menacing landlord's agent" , "Officer of court" , "Sheriff's officer - landlord's agent" , "Court official" , "Law officer who helps sheriff, say to foreclose" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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