Manchester Arena terrorist snapped silent and grinning just moments before launching violent attack on prison guards
Manchester Arena terrorist Hashem Abedi was silent and grinning as he stabbed and scalded three prison officers.
Manchester Arena terrorist Hashem Abedi was silent and grinning as he stabbed and scalded three prison officers.
Two of the officers sustained life-threatening injuries after they were attacked at HMP Frankland in County Durham.
Abedi had hoarded sachets of butter before and then melted them down to scald a female prison officer.
Two male guards were also stabbed with makeshift knives after they were ambushed in the kitchen of a separation unit.
Abedi had made the two 30cm knives out of cooking trays and wrapped kitchen towels around them for handles.
Sources told The Sun that it was a miracle they survived.
It is believed other extremists helped him plot the attack. Last night Abedi was moved to another jail to keep him away from them, it is understood.
A source said it was not just an assault but a terrorist attack within the prison, adding it was clearly pre-meditated and planned.
Hashem Abdedi, smirking before he attacked prison guards at HMP Belmarsh in 2020
Abedi attacked three prison officers with cooking oil and makeshift weapons, according to the Prison Officers Association (POA).
The female warder, in her 30s, was discharged from hospital the same day.
Her two male colleagues, one in his 30s, the other aged around 60, suffered life threatening injuries.
The older guard was stabbed in the neck once and the other officer was stabbed five times in the back and suffered a punctured lung.
A source said: Abedi was completely silent and grinning as he carried out the attack.
There is no doubt he wanted to kill and it is miraculous they all survived. But he was acting like a silent assassin.
Prison staff think Abedi collected loads of sachets of butter or margarine, hid them and used dozens to make the hot oil.
The source added that olive oil is not given out to prisoners due to the risk of an attack, but officers do not monitor how many sachets of butter are given out.
They said that all hell broke loose following the attack and the officer who was stabbed in the neck was seen walking down a corridor, holding his wound as blood was pouring out.
A prison van and two police cars were seen leaving Frankland last night. It is understood Abedi was being relocated to another prison.
Salman Abedi, left, with his brothers Hashem (centre) and Ismail
This picture shows police interviewing Hashem following the horrific 2017 Manchester Arena terror attack
Around six guards are believed to have led Abedi to the van for transfer to HMP Full Sutton in York, which has its own close supervision centre unit.
A source said the separation unit, where Abedi was being held in Frankland, usually houses only extremist inmates who often speak to each other in Arabic.
They said most officers are locals, who would not realise if the inmates were planning the attack right in front of them.
Prison union sources suggested that Abedi may have stolen a weapon from a kitchen although there were unconfirmed reports that a knife may have been carried into the prison via a drone, according to The Telegraph.
Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers Association (POA), told BBC Breakfast this morning that the two prison officers who remain in hospital following an attack at HMP Frankland in County Durham have stabilised.
Two are still in hospital with serious injuries, but Im glad to report theyve stabilised, he said.
A third member of staff was discharged yesterday.
All three staff members also suffered burns and scalds.
Salman Abedi, Hashems brother, at Victoria Station making his way to the Manchester Arena, on May 22, 2017
A picture of the scene following the Manchester Arena bombing
He added authorities needed to take a long, hard look at how regimes are handled in separation centres following an attack on prison officers at HMP Frankland in County Durham.
I am appalled that these offenders in a separation centre are allowed the same privileges as normal location prisoners, he said.
A separation centre is there for a reason. All we need to do with those types of prisoners is give them their basic entitlements.
Separation centres should be for control and containment.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said: The appalling attack on prison officers by one of the terrorists involved in the Manchester Arena bombing is extremely concerning.
My thoughts are with the officers affected. This deeply serious security failure must be a turning point.
The incident comes five years after Abedi was convicted of a vicious attack on a prison officer in the high-security unit of Belmarsh prison in May 2020.
Abedi was jailed for life in August 2020 and until now had been serving his sentenced at the category A HMP Frankland.
Hashem (pictured posing with a gun) was in Libya at the time of the bombing, having left the UK weeks earlier. He offered no defence to the charges that he had helped his brother plan the attack on the Manchester Arena in May 2017, killing children, teenagers and adults as they poured out of an Ariana Grande concert or waited for their loved ones, and critically injuring dozens more
The 22 people killed in the Manchester Arena bombing in May 2017
He offered no defence to the charges that he had helped his brother plan the attack on the Manchester Arena in May 2017, killing children, teenagers and adults as they poured out of an Ariana Grande concert or waited for their loved ones, and critically injuring dozens more.
Abedi was charged with the murders in a bold move by the Crown Prosecution Service even though he was in Libya at the time of the suicide attack by his older brother, Salman who died in the attack.
Duncan Penny QC, prosecuting, told the jury Hashem Abedi was just as responsible for this atrocity, as surely as if he had selected the target and detonated the bomb himself.
Category A is the highest level of security, housing some of the countrys most serious criminals including Levi Bellfield, Ian Huntley and Wayne Couzens.