Manchester bomb plotter ‘moved to Belmarsh prison’ after guards attacked

Manchester bomb plotter Hashem Abedi has been moved to Belmarsh prison after an attack on three prison officers, it is understood.

The guards were attacked with hot oil and homemade weapons at HMP Frankland in Co Durham on Saturday.

Abedi has since been transferred out of the prison to the high security jail in south-east London.

It highlights how dangerous our job is. We need protective equipment issued to us. The Government need to lower our retirement age

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has said it will carry out a review and the Prime Minister’s spokesman said the Government will urgently investigate what happened.

But Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, told the PA news agency the Government “haven’t even announced who’s doing it yet” or released the terms of reference for the review.

After his visit to Frankland, he said the separation unit where the attack had taken place had been “decanted” because “it’s a crime scene”.

The union boss said he will be meeting Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood next Wednesday to discuss the incident.

He told PA: “It highlights how dangerous our job is.

“We need protective equipment issued to us. The Government need to lower our retirement age.”

Of the staff at Frankland he said “they are traumatised, they are fragile and they were angry” over the “appeasement” of very violent offenders.

He said while strike action is banned for prison officers, there is health and safety legislation that could be considered.

“Everyone deserves to be safe at work,” he said.

One staff member remains in hospital, while two others have been discharged.

Mr Fairhurst’s comments come as the attack by Abedi was described as a “catastrophic failure” of duty by the Justice Secretary, in a letter from one of the survivors of the Manchester Arena bombing.

In an open letter to Ms Mahmood and the MoJ, Martin Hibbert said he was “absolutely disgusted – beyond words” to hear about the attack.

“Let’s call this what it is: a catastrophic failure of your duty to protect prison staff and the public from an unrepentant terrorist,” he wrote in the letter posted on social media.

“Not only was Abedi allowed the freedom to move around and use facilities that should never be available to someone like him – he was able to track and target three prison guards using boiling oil and homemade weapons.”

Mr Hibbert suffered life-changing injuries at the Ariana Grande concert in May 2017, and was left with a spinal cord injury. His daughter, Eve, suffered severe brain damage in the attack, which killed 22 people.

“I was told justice would be served. What I see now is not justice. It’s a shameful lack of accountability and basic prison security” said Mr Hibbert.

“I’m not just angry. I’m broken by this. And I am furious that the pain of survivors like me is being so blatantly disrespected by your inaction.”

He called for Abedi to be stripped of access to any areas where he could make or find weapons.

“This cannot continue. Something drastic needs to be done. Not tomorrow. Not next month. Now,” he wrote.

“Because right now, it feels like you’ve forgotten us.”

Families of five of the victims, Megan Hurley, Eilidh Macleod, Chloe Rutherford, Liam Curry and Kelly Brewster, wrote to the Justice Secretary expressing “absolute disbelief” at the attack, the BBC reported.

The broadcaster said it had seen the letter, which read: “In our view, he should not be allowed any privileges whatsoever while serving a sentence for the deaths of 22 innocent lives and the injuring of many more.

“He should not have access to anything that he can weaponise, such as hot oil or items he can turn into blades.”

The families have called for Abedi to be put in permanent solitary confinement.

Labour MP Mary Foy, whose Durham City constituency covers HMP Frankland, has also written to the Justice Secretary to back calls for officers at Category A prisons to be equipped with stab vests.

She also said prison staff should have better pay and pensions, adding: “Category A prisons like Frankland hold inmates who represent the highest threat to society, and the officers who manage them deserve far better protection and recognition for their work, without having to fear for their lives daily.”

Prisons minister Lord James Timpson visited HMP Frankland on Wednesday and said in a post on X that the Government “will do everything it can” to protect staff in prisons.

He added that the scope and terms of reference for the independent review will be set out “in the coming days” and that he valued “constructive conversations” with the POA.

The Ministry of Justice has also suspended access to kitchens in separation and close supervision units, where inmates are kept apart from the general prison population.

Abedi planned and prepared the attack with his brother, the suicide bomber Salman Abedi, and was extradited from Libya to the UK.

He was sentenced to a record 55-year minimum term before he could be considered for parole, in 2020, for 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.