Cliff Notes
- Hashem Abedi, the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, attacked prison guards with hot cooking oil and homemade weapons, leading to an immediate suspension of kitchen access in separation centres.
- The incident prompted calls for a review of security measures, with the Prime Minister’s spokesman asserting that the government is committed to ensuring staff safety and conducting an investigation.
- Abedi, serving a 55-year sentence for his role in the 2017 bombing, previously assaulted prison officers in 2020, raising concerns about the management of dangerous offenders in prisons.
Kitchen use suspended following Manchester Arena plotter Hashem Abedi’s prison attack | UK News
Prisoners housed in separation centres have been stopped from using kitchens following an attack by the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber.
The Prison Officers Association (POA) said 28-year-old Hashem Abedi – the brother of Salman Abedi – threw hot cooking oil over the guards before stabbing them with homemade weapons on Saturday.
He was sentenced in 2020 to at least 55 years in prison after being found guilty of 22 counts of murder over the 2017 atrocity and is serving his sentence at category A Frankland prison, in County Durham.
The attack is said to have happened at a separation centre, a small unit sometimes referred to as a “prison within a prison”, usually used to house dangerous prisoners and those deemed a risk of radicalising other inmates.
After the attack, POA national chairman Mark Fairhurst called for “cooking facilities and items that can threaten the lives of staff” to be removed immediately.
It is understood that kitchen use in prison separation centres has now been suspended.
Speaking after convicted murderer John Mansfield was killed by another inmate at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire on Sunday, the prime minister’s spokesman said Sir Keir Starmer was “appalled” by Abedi’s attack.
“Prison staff work around the clock to keep the country safe and we will never tolerate the violence that is targeted towards them,” he said.
“It’s clear that something went terribly wrong in the management of this offender and the government is committed to carrying out an investigation to urgently get answers.”
Segregation centres were introduced in 2017 in an attempt to control and contain prisoners with extreme views.
A 2022 inspection found a total of nine men were then housed in the units in Franklin and HMP Woodhill, in Milton Keynes.
The report said the Frankland unit is on a narrow corridor with a small “room for association” and an area for prisoners to cook and prepare food.
Following the attack at Frankland, which is being investigated by counter terrorism police, Mr Fairhurst called for “change”.
He told Sky News’ Kamali Melbourne on Sunday: “These separation centres hold the most violent and the worst threat to national security when it comes to terrorist offenders, and we’re allowing them the freedoms and privileges of everybody else on normal location [in prison].”
The Ministry of Justice said it will carry out a review following the attack.
A spokesperson said: “The government will do whatever it takes to keep our hardworking staff safe and our thoughts remain with the two prison officers still in hospital as they recover.
“We’ve already taken immediate action to suspend access to kitchens in separation and close supervision centres.
“We will also launch a full independent review into how this attack was able to happen and will set out the terms and scope of this review in the coming days.”
Hashem Abedi was found guilty by a jury of 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and plotting to cause an explosion likely to endanger life after helping his brother plan his suicide bombing.
He was later found guilty, along with two other convicted terrorists, of attacking a prison officer in the high-security unit of southeast London‘s Belmarsh prison in 2020.