Manchester arena terror plotter Hashem Abedi has been moved to a new prison after a horror attack on three guards with hot oil and homemade weapons, it’s understood.
The three police officers, two men and a woman, suffered life-threatening injuries after being attacked by the 28-year-old, who was jailed for life for helping his brother, Salman Abedi , carry out the suicide bombing that killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in 2017. Abedi was transferred out of HMP Frankland in Co Durham after the incident on Saturday to Belmarsh Prison in south-east London. The Ministry of Justice is set to carry out a review and the Government will urgently investigate what happened.
Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, said two of the officers are still in hospital after the attack. He told the PA news agency: “It highlights how dangerous our job is.
“[Staff at HMP Frankland] are traumatised, they are fragile and they were angry. Everyone deserves to be safe at work. We need protective equipment issued to us. The Government needs to lower our retirement age.”
The union boss added he will meet Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood next Wednesday to discuss the incident.
His 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, who suffered life-changing injuries in the attack which also injured his daughter, added: “Let’s call this what it is – a catastrophic failure of your duty to protect prison staff and the public from an unrepentant terrorist.
“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.
“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. I’m not just angry. I’m broken by this.
“This cannot continue. Something drastic needs to be done. Not tomorrow. Not next month. Now.”
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. 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.
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