Ministers must stop appeasing jailed terrorists after a brutal attack left three prison officers ‘millimetres’ from death, a top Tory said on Sunday.
Prison officials need to regain control from Islamist extremists allowed to ‘rule the roost’ behind bars, Conservative justice spokesman Robert Jenrick added.
Questions mounted on Sunday over why Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi, 28, had access to a ‘self-cook kitchen’, hot cooking oil and the materials for the makeshift weapons used in his attack.
Abedi – who helped his brother, suicide bomber Salman Abedi, plan the Manchester atrocity – fashioned two 20cm blades from a baking tray.
He hurled hot oil on the three officers before attacking them with the blades. Writing in the Daily Mail, Mr Jenrick said the appalling attack must be a ‘turning point’.
He also warned that in Britain’s high-security jails ‘all too often, the ruthless Islamist extremists are in control, with prison officers left fearing for their lives’.
Prisons are ‘no longer places of punishment, but of appeasement’, he said, accusing officials of prioritising the ‘welfare of wicked individuals’ ahead of prison staff.
The Ministry of Justice announced a review on Sunday as gruesome details emerged of the attack at HMP Frankland, County Durham.
CCTV showing Hashem Abedi in Belmarsh prison prior to storming the office of its custody manager in 2022
Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi (pictured) had access to a ‘self-cook kitchen’, hot cooking oil and the materials for the makeshift weapons used in his attack
Conservative justice spokesperson Robert Jenrick (pictured in January) said ministers must stop appeasing jailed terrorists
Abedi was known to be one of the most dangerous inmates in the UK, with a history of attacking officers.
He was ordered to serve a record 55-year minimum term for helping his brother murder 22 people, many of them children, at the Manchester Arena in 2017.
Yet he was given privileges including being allowed to cook for himself in a prison kitchen where he managed to create the blades.
Abedi is said to have dashed out of the kitchen just before lunchtime on Saturday clutching the weapons and a pan of boiling oil which he flung at the nearest three prison officers he encountered on a landing.
One male officer was then stabbed in the neck, with the blade coming close to severing an artery, reportedly leaving the victim ‘just millimetres’ from death.
Another male officer was stabbed at least five times in the back, puncturing a lung.
One of their female colleagues was also injured. The boiling oil is said to have left victims with third-degree burns.
The woman was discharged from hospital on Saturday afternoon, but her two male colleagues were still being treated on Sunday, and were said to be in a stable condition.
Police interviewing Abedi following the 2017 Manchester Arena terror attack
After the prison attack, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood (pictured) promised she would vie for the ‘strongest possible punishment’
Mark Fairhurst, chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association (POA), has demanded an immediate ban on allowing serious terrorist inmates to use prison kitchens due to the risk they pose.
On Sunday, he also said prison officers must be equipped with stab-proof vests and should even be allowed to carry Tasers so they can protect themselves.
He warned of possible copycat attacks in other prisons with self-cooking facilities.
Mr Jenrick said: ‘Why was one of the most dangerous prisoners in the country allowed access to materials which could be used to attack prison officers?
‘I and others warned of Islamist extremists ruling the roost in prison wings across the country.
‘Prison governors need to stop appeasing these offenders. The safety of prison officers is infinitely more important than the supposed ‘welfare’ of wicked individuals.’
He told the Mail: ‘A full independent investigation into these catastrophic security failures must be initiated immediately. The governor must provide answers to the searching questions, and should be expected to resign if these are not forthcoming.’
Self-cook kitchens have been introduced across many prisons, including three separation units for terrorist offenders, where inmates are allowed daily supervised access to knives and other bladed implements to cook their own food.
Abedi (pictured in 2017) was known to be one of the most dangerous inmates in the UK, with a history of attacking officers
Former prison governor Professor Ian Acheson (pictured) blamed the state’s enforcement of security measures for dangerous inmates
The attack took place in a separation centre, where Abedi has been a long-term inmate.
The centre, which holds fewer than ten prisoners, is used to contain those regarded as the most dangerous extremists – inmates who have refused attempts to deradicalise them.
Inspectors claim the facilities are an ‘opportunity for social interaction and the ability to develop essential life skills’, according to the latest report on HMP Frankland.
Months after he was jailed in August 2020, Abedi and two other inmates set upon two guards at Belmarsh Prison in south-east London, punching and kicking them like a ‘pack of animals’.
He was later sent to Frankland, which has housed other notorious terrorists, including Michael Adebolajo, who killed Fusilier Lee Rigby in London in 2013.
Mr Fairhurst said: ‘I do not know why we are so terrified of upsetting terrorist offenders. We are appeasing them instead of treating them as the threat that they represent.
‘We need to stop allowing terrorist offenders in separation centres the freedom and privilege to use self-cook facilities and we need to issue stab-proof vests and protective equipment to officers.
‘The use of Tasers may not have prevented this attack as those officers would not have had time to draw them, but their injuries would have been severely reduced if they had them.
CCTV image of Salman Abedi, Hashem’s brother, at London Victoria Station making his way to the Manchester Arena on May 22, 2017, where he detonated his bomb
Jenrick said prison officials need to regain and exert control over terrorist inmates harbouring extremist ideologies
‘Staff are now at risk from copycat attacks in other prisons. These are terrorists – how do we know this will not result in a call to arms?
‘Terrorist prisoners are intent on causing harm, and people in these separation centres want to destroy our way of life. Why are we appeasing people who want to kill us?’
After the attack, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood promised: ‘I will be pushing for the strongest possible punishment.’
But former prison governor Professor Ian Acheson said: ‘There is a problem pushing for the ‘strongest possible punishment’ of a man who is serving a 55-year sentence. What are you going to do, send him to jail?’
The former government adviser, who recommended the creation of separation centres in 2016 for ‘ideologically bulletproof’ terrorist offenders who could radicalise others, said inmates had been given ‘far too much latitude’.
‘It’s an inconceivable security lapse, and there has to be an independent and externally led review of what happened here,’ he said.
‘This attack and other attacks like them indicate that the state is not fully in control of Frankland Prison and other high-security prisons where a lot of other terrorist prisons are being held.
‘We came within, I think, seconds and millimetres of the first murder of prison officers on duty in living memory, and that has profound implications for the men and women that we ask to do this job.
In the prison attack, Abedi (pictured here posing with a gun) fashioned two 20cm blades from a baking tray
Suicide bomber Salman Abedi caught on CCTV on the night he carried out the Manchester Arena terror attack
‘If they don’t feel safe enough to go into prisons, we have a catastrophe on our hands.’
Tory MP Esther McVey said: ‘Abedi must now spend the rest of his 55-year sentence in solitary confinement.’
Counter-terrorism detectives are investigating the attack.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice 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 hard-working staff safe.’
This must be a turning point for the way we handle Islamist extremists in our prisons, by ROBERT JENRICK MP
Who controls our prisons: the governors or Islamist extremists and their gangs? As we learn more details of the sickening attack on three prison officers at HMP Frankland, that’s the question the Government must answer.
It is unforgivable that Saturday’s assault was even possible. A convicted terrorist, Hashem Abedi – the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber – was apparently able to throw boiling oil over the officers and then stab them with a weapon made of materials available to him.
Jail kitchen where dangerous inmates were allowed knives
Porridge may once have been the staple of a prison diet, but these days inmates can choose from six menu options – or even cook for themselves in their own kitchen.
Many British jails have these cooking facilities, including three separation centres such as the one Hashem Abedi is kept in, equipped with sharp implements such as knives, graters and scissors.
Mark Fairhurst, chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, compared the facilities to a studio flat kitchen, with room for one inmate to cook under supervision.
Knives and other bladed implements are in a locked cupboard, and inmates must ask for permission to use them.
In addition, they are kept on a ‘shadow board’, which has outlines of the shape of each tool, so if a knife is missing it is obvious to officers. Although they are potential weapons, the knives are not tethered.
Mr Fairhurst said there was an ‘obvious risk to officers’ before knives are replaced in the cabinet, adding: ‘There are always staff present when they are unlocked, but we don’t stand over the prisoner while they are cutting food.’
Retired prison governor Vanessa Frake told GB News yesterday: ‘It’s about time we started using separation units as containment and control and not trying to appease the most dangerous prisoners. To give them access to boiling oil is beyond my comprehension.’
Cooking facilities in the separation centre at Frankland, where Hashem Abedi is serving 55 years
Inmate’s room in the separation centre
This appalling incident must be a turning point for the treatment of Islamist extremists in our prisons. Abedi was known to be one of the most dangerous inmates in the UK, serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 55 years.
He had a history of attacking prison officers. Yet in a separation centre designed to isolate him and keep him under constant surveillance, he was given the opportunity to inflict life-threatening injuries.
A full independent investigation into these catastrophic security failures must be initiated immediately. The governor must provide answers to the searching questions, and should be expected to resign if these are not forthcoming. Three of his officers have had their lives put in danger as a result of serious failures in his prison.
But it is not only HMP Frankland that seems to have lost control. High-security prisons across Britain now have entire wings ruled by self-styled ‘brotherhood’ gangs, where non-Muslim prisoners are coerced into converting to Islam for their protection.
The gangs dictate menus, prayer times and many other practices. Prisoners accused of blasphemy are placed on trial at shadow sharia courts. Their edicts are enforced with brutal assaults and floggings.
All this is happening in prisons supposedly run by the Ministry of Justice. The reality is that all too often the ruthless Islamist extremists are in control, with prison officers left fearing for their lives.
Forced conversion and radicalisation are imposed on inmates of every ethnic background. Those already at risk of assault, the paedophiles and serial killers, are most likely to embrace Islam for their own safety. Without the protection of the gangs, they will be constantly in danger of assaults.
But the rule of the gangs, run by self-styled ‘emirs’, is so absolute in a lot of prisons that many inmates who refuse to convert reportedly have to be locked up in specialist wings for their protection. Isolation centres, built to contain radicals and terrorists, are now shelters for the people they target. This is insanity. We cannot allow our prisons to continue to be run on this basis. They are no longer places of punishment but of appeasement.
In order to get a grip, we must deport all Islamist prisoners who are foreign nationals. This sounds obvious, but it will require a fundamental overhaul of human rights laws. For a start, aid and visas should be suspended for those countries which refuse to accept responsibility for their own nationals who commit offences in the UK.
Islamism presents by far the most potent terror and radicalisation threat in Britain, despite the Prime Minister’s attempts to divert focus on to the far-Right and online misogyny. In 2023, Islamists made up three-quarters of MI5’s caseload and 80 per cent of counter-terrorism policing.
Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, must confront this head on. Former prison governor Ian Acheson’s meticulous 2016 report on Islamist extremism in the prison system, with 69 recommendations, is gathering dust on her department’s shelves. These must be implemented without delay.
Charlie Taylor, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, has implored the Government to act to stop drones being flown into maximum security prisons. He warned that they could soon supply guns and explosives to terrorists in prison. Despite the dire warning, Mahmood’s department say their security upgrades won’t be complete until next summer. That’s unacceptably slow.
The governor and the senior team at HMP Frankland must be held to account too. Abedi was in a segregation unit, so the prison staff must have been fully aware of the threat he presented. Yet he was given absurd access to privileges.
But it goes beyond individuals. Our human rights laws have allowed lawyers to dictate prison policies. Following a court ruling in January, it has become very difficult for governors to hold Islamist prisoners in separation centres, unless their radicalising influence over other prisoners has been categorically proven. In effect, prisons are obliged to put inmates on trial again for extremism.
This means building meticulous cases against them, grading intelligence, arbitrating on disputes and producing written justifications. The weight of paperwork involved in segregating just one individual can demand more resources than are available for operations against extremism across the whole prison. As a result, at Frankland and many other prisons, terrorist influencers can game the system to ensure they remain in the mainstream.
On Saturday, we saw the horrific consequences of allowing Islamist extremists to control our prisons. In prisons across the UK they will be aware of Abedi’s attack and will be celebrating. Many will be inspired to plot worse attacks.
We have to break the gangs. If we don’t, they will only strike harder with greater vengeance.
