Two prison officers are in hospital with life-threatening injuries following a violent assault by convicted terrorist Hashem Abedi at HMP Frankland on Saturday.
Abedi, the brother of Manchester Arena suicide bomber Salman Abedi, reportedly doused three officers with boiling cooking oil before attacking them with improvised weapons. One officer suffered stab wounds to the face and neck and required emergency airlifting to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough. A second remains in hospital, while a third officer was treated and discharged.
The Prison Officers Association confirmed that the attack involved homemade weapons and may have been facilitated by a smuggled blade. Unverified reports suggest a drone may have been used to deliver a knife into the prison grounds. Abedi was being held in a separation unit reserved for the highest-risk inmates.
This is not Abedi’s first violent offence behind bars. In 2020, he was sentenced to nearly four years for assaulting a prison officer at Belmarsh high-security prison.
The latest incident raises urgent questions about the management of extremist prisoners. Sources claim vulnerable inmates have been moved into separation units intended for extremists to keep them apart, fuelling unrest.
Ian Acheson, a former prison governor and adviser on counter-terrorism in prisons, condemned the incident as a “catastrophic security failure,” saying it should be a resignation matter. He criticised the absence of independent oversight and warned that the prison service’s “complacency” towards terrorist threats has now resulted in near-fatal consequences.
Mark Fairhurst, chairman of the Prison Officers Association, said the attack highlights the grave risks faced by staff managing unrepentant terrorist offenders.
