Angry staff at top security HMP Frankland were left to ‘clean up their colleagues’ blood’ after three prison officers were injured, including two who suffered “severe stab wounds.” The Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi is alleged to have been involved in the prison horror attack on two male and one female prison officer.
The attack is said to have taken place in a ‘prison within a prison’ especially created to segregate extremists. The officers were all taken to hospital after the incident which is believed to have involved boiling ‘butter or margarine’ and a ‘makeshift weapon’. Calls are now being made to introduce stab-proof vests ‘as a minimum’ for prison officers.
Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation into the attack in a ‘separation unit’ at the Durham jail. It is believed it involved terrorist Hashem Abedi, one of the men responsible for the Manchester Arena bombing. And the Government has ordered a “full review”.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Our thoughts remain with the two prison officers still in hospital as they recover. There will be a full review into how this attack was able to happen, alongside the separate police inquiry. The Government will do whatever it takes to keep our hardworking staff safe.”
The officers sustained life-threatening injuries on Saturday including burns, scalds and stab wounds in the attack, the Prison Officers’ Association have said. They believe butter or margarine may have been heated up in cooking facilities at the separation unit and the officers were doused with the boiling liquid.
Abedi, 28, was jailed for at least 55 years for helping his brother Salman Abedi carry out the 2017 suicide bombing, in which 22 people died. He was previously found guilty along with convicted terrorists, of attacking a prison officer at London’s Belmarsh prison in 2020.
It is claimed this weekend prison officers guarding him had hot cooking fat thrown over them and suffered wounds created by “home made weapons.” The Prison Service confirmed three officers have been treated in hospital after an attack by a prisoner.
The female officer was discharged by 4pm on Saturday. Her two male colleagues suffered “severe stab wounds” and remain in hospital where their conditions have “stabilised”, Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, said on Sunday.
Saturday’s attack took place in a separation centre at HMP Frankland where Abedi has been a long-term inmate. That centre, which holds fewer than 10 inmates, is used to house prisoners regarded as the most dangerous and extremist.
Steve Gillan the General Secretary of the Prison Officers Association told The Mirror: “This was a despicable and cowardly attack. Staff were attacked where they are allowed to self cook. At least two had either hot butter or hot margarine thrown over them and then started to stab them with a makeshift weapon. These people are ingenious and they will use anything they get their hands on.
“The officers were stabbed several times with a makeshift blade, weapon. We haven’t got stab vests and that’s a real issue. You see security guards in supermarkets with stab vests but prison officers don’t have them. Prison officers are dealing with people who are clearly a danger to society and a danger to prison officers.
“Our thoughts are with the prison officers and their families also their colleagues who have been traumatised too. ” He pointed out they’d had to clean up their colleagues’ blood after the investigation was carried out. “That is traumatising enough,” he said.
He said the jail’s seperation units had been opened in a ‘blaze of glory’ some years ago but they fear the units just give such prisoners ‘status’.
“There will be a lot of anger. I’ve got real concerns about butter or margarine allowed it the area of the separation unit used for self cooking, so they can heat it up and throw it at staff. We are calling for all those materials to be withdrawn. The officers suffered third degree burns in this attack.
“This was a cowardly attack and didn’t make any sense whatsoever. But of course this individual has nothing to lose. It’s absolutely shocking and despicable. Prison officers do a brilliant job on behalf of society to keep everyone safe from these types of cowardly attacks.”
Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, told BBC Breakfast two prison officers who remain in hospital following an attack at HMP Frankland in County Durham have “severe stab wounds”.
“Two are still in hospital with serious injuries, but I’m glad to report they’ve stabilised,” he said. “A third member of staff was discharged yesterday.” All three staff members also suffered burns and scalds. Mr Fairhurst added that authorities needed to take a “long, hard look” at how regimes are handled in separation centres following an attack on prison officers at HMP Frankland in County Durham.
“I am appalled that these offenders in a separation centre are allowed the same privileges as normal location prisoners,” he told BBC Breakfast.
“A separation centre is there for a reason. All we need to do with those types of prisoners is give them their basic entitlements. Separation centres should be for control and containment.” He told the Northern Echo “staff are extremely angry”
One officer was released on Saturday night from hospital but two remain receiving treatment in a stable condition.
Separation units started to be introduced at the jail in 2017. They were described as a “prison within a prison” to segregate extremists. It was later described as “successful” but “claustrophobic”, a report found.
Management and staff “deserve a great deal of credit for the successful delivery of a fully functioning unit”, it said. But the centre’s “compact nature… gave rise to a claustrophobic feeling” and the population ceiling guideline should be reduced, the report said. Inmates on the unit work with psychologists, probation and religious leaders.
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