The Ministry of Justice has said it will carry out a review following reports that Manchester bomb plotter Hashem Abedi attacked three prison officers with hot oil and home-made weapons.
Abedi threw hot cooking oil over three officers on Saturday before stabbing them with “home-made weapons”, the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) said.
The officers sustained life-threatening injuries including burns, scalds and stab wounds in the “unprovoked” and “vicious” attack in HMP Frankland, Country Durham, according to the trade union covering prison staff.
Two officers sustained “severe stab wounds” but are in a stable condition in hospital, its national chairman said on Sunday morning.
Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) said at about 6.30pm on Sunday that two officers remain in hospital with serious injuries. A female officer had been discharged by 4pm on Saturday.
CTP NE is leading the investigation into the “serious assault” and confirmed it is “keeping an open mind” on motivation.
Announcing the review into the incident, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “There will be a full review into how this attack was able to happen, alongside the separate police inquiry.”
Abedi was convicted of assisting with the Manchester terror plot, in which his suicide bomber brother Salman Abedi killed 22 people by detonating a homemade rucksack-bomb in a crowd of concert-goers.
He was handed a record-breaking 55-year minimum term in August 2020 which he is currently serving at the category A HMP Frankland.
Category A is the highest level of security and Frankland has housed other notorious inmates, including Fusilier Lee Rigby’s terrorist killer Michael Adebolajo, Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, and Charles Bronson.
Frankland also has a separation centre.
These centres, introduced in 2017, aim to control and contain prisoners with extreme views, for example by preventing them from disrupting the prison estate, supporting acts of terrorism or radicalising other inmates.
On Sunday morning, POA national chairman Mark Fairhurst said Abedi carried out the attack in a separation centre where inmates are allowed to use cooking facilities.
He told the BBC: “To allow that type of prisoner to access the kitchen and use the utensils that can be used as weapons against staff, and can inflict serious harm on staff, that needs to be removed immediately.
“We’re now worried about the knock-on effect of this and copycat incidents.
“It’s very difficult to get someone into the separation centre because of the process you have to go through, so the intelligence really needs to be on the ball to get someone contained in the separation centre.”
POA REACT TO TERRORIST ATTACK
— POA (@POAUnion) April 12, 2025
Leaders of the POA have reacted angrily to a vicious attack on three Prison Officers working in a separation centre at HMP Frankland in County Durham.https://t.co/63WZY86Nhb pic.twitter.com/RmfrdQe0aJ
The centres are “for obvious reasons” well-resourced, with good staffing levels that include people who are specially trained to work in separation centres, he said.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Fairhurst said: “We’ve been calling for several years now for stab-proof vests to be issued to staff on the front line but it’s been consistently denied. That has to change.”
He told the news outlet that the POA has been told repeatedly that stab-proof vests “look too militaristic and might intimidate prisoners”.
“Now we’re dealing with murderers, armed robbers, major criminals and terrorists and they’re worried about us intimidating them because of the uniform we wear. Staff safety is paramount”, he said.
The chairman added the POA had asked for an urgent meeting with Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood over the incident.
A 2022 inspection found nine men in total were housed in separation centres, then operating in Frankland and HMP Woodhill, Buckinghamshire.
It said the Frankland unit is on a narrow corridor with a small “room for association” and an area for prisoners to cook and prepare food.
I am appalled by the attack of three brave officers at HMP Frankland today. My thoughts are with them and their families.
— Shabana Mahmood MP (@ShabanaMahmood) April 12, 2025
The police are now investigating. I will be pushing for the strongest possible punishment. Violence against our staff will never be tolerated.
There are no facilities on the wing and staff could arrange for prisoners to visit the main prison gym or to be taken off the unit for education, the report said.
The centres were designed for inmates with any political or religious views but by 2022 they had only been used for Muslim men, it added.
Ms Mahmood posted on social media site X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday: “I am appalled by the attack of three brave officers at HMP Frankland today. My thoughts are with them and their families.
“The police are now investigating. I will be pushing for the strongest possible punishment.
“Violence against our staff will never be tolerated.”
Abedi avoided a whole-life order because he was under 21 at the time he orchestrated the atrocity at the Ariana Grande concert in 2017.
The previous longest minimum term imposed on a terrorist in Britain was believed to have been 50 years in the case of David Copeland, who carried out a nail-bombing campaign in 1999.
CTP said: “Extensive enquiries continue to establish the full circumstances and explore any potential motivation.
“We are keeping an open mind as we investigate to establish the facts.”
Durham Constabulary is supporting the probe.
