High-security unit inmates barred from kitchens after attack

The government has suspended kitchen use in prison separation centres that are used to house a small number of the UK's most dangerous and extremist inmates, it is understood.

It comes after the Manchester Arena bomber Hashem Abedi attacked three prison officers on Saturday in HMP Frankland.

Two male officers remain in hospital with serious injuries. A female officer was discharged from hospital on Saturday.

Abedi threw hot oil at the officers and stabbed them with blades fashioned from cooking trays, the prison officers' association (POA) has said.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's spokesman said it was "clear that something went terribly wrong" with how Abedi had been handled.

Abedi had access to the kitchen in Frankland's separation centre, one of only two such centres of their kind currently in use.

It is understood that Hashem Abedi was moved to the separation centre at HMP Full Sutton following the kitchen attack.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has said there will be a full review into the incident.

Access to kitchens in close supervision centres - small, specialist units located within six high-security prisons - has also been suspended.

Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the POA, said Abedi was suspected of making knives out of a baking tray from the kitchen, with one officer suffering a severed artery after being stabbed in the neck, and another receiving severe stab wounds to the back.

Abedi was jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 55 years for helping his brother carry out the 2017 suicide bombing of an Ariana Grande concert.

Abedi had been a long-term inmate at HMP Frankland's separation centre, which holds fewer than 10 prisoners and is used to house those considered the most dangerous and extremist.

He moved to Frankland after carrying out an earlier attack on prison officers in London's HMP Belmarsh in 2020.

A sentence of three years and 10 months for this attack was added to his previous minimum term.

Earlier that same year, Abedi was found guilty of 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life over the Manchester Arena attack.

The separation model was introduced in 2017 with the aim of isolating and controlling prisoners who present a risk that could not be managed in a standard prison environment, according to the MoJ.

Sir Keir was "appalled" by Saturday's attack, the prime minister's spokesman said, adding: "Prison staff work around the clock to keep the country safe and we will never tolerate the violence that is targeted towards them.

"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."

Mr Fairhurst had earlier called on the government to "restrict and remove cooking facilities from separation centres" over worries about "copycat incidents" following Saturday's attack.

He said that offenders in these locations were being allowed similar privileges as normal prisoners, adding that they "should be for control and containment, because these people are not going to change their ideologies and they are intent on inflicting harm on everyone they come into contact with".

He said the POA wanted officers to be equipped with stab vests to prevent such incidents, but argued that Prison Service leaders "don't want us all looking too militaristic to the prisoners".

John Podmore, former governor of HMPs Brixton and Belmarsh, said self-catering facilities should be an incentive for good behaviour instead of a way of persuading prisoners not to be violent or disruptive.

He said kitchens in separation centres could "only be there" to serve as a means of appeasing their dangerous inmates, while there were prisoners in low security prisons "who would dream of having these facilities".

Mr Podmore stressed that prisoners in separation centres were "looking to radicalise others and kill staff".

Noting that even a toothbrush could be made into a weapon, he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "In a kitchen, where you've got not only the hot oil but you've got pans, tins, you've got metal and a whole range of things that can and will be used.

"I've seen serious injuries with a bean tin, with a pool ball, but you try to manage that out."

He said that, during his tenure at Belmarsh, "we took away metal food trays and we actually designed plastic rounded trays" to avoid them being used as weapons.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she would be pushing for the "strongest possible punishment" for Abedi.

Additional reporting by Jonny Humphries