Prisoners ‘attack inmate with craft knife and ligature’ at top security jail
Two prisoners at a top security jail left another inmate with multiple injuries after attacking him with a craft knife and a ligature, according to a newly disclosed report.
A general alarm was raised at HMP Frankland during the incident on December 31 last year, which left the victim needing hospital treatment.
The attack is among 150 assaults over 12 months at the jail in Durham which were reported on by Metro.co.uk earlier this week.
Details of the incidents have been disclosed in a dataset compiled by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
Prison officers were alerted at 9.10am to raised voices coming from a cell, the report shows. They saw two men assaulting their victim ‘with a craft knife and a ligature’, according to the entry. The assailants are said to have complied with orders from the staff to stop the attack and leave the cell.
The report says: ‘[Redacted] was given medical treatment by [redacted] for cuts to his neck, head, face, hands and back as well as a facial injury caused by a punch. He was later taken to outside hospital.’
The author of the report, who is unnamed, was told by the victim that one of the attackers had asked him to come into his cell. When he entered he was unaware there was another man there before they placed a ‘garrote’ around his neck and punched him as they began the assault, the log says.
Other assaults at the Category A men’s prison included an inmate using two steel bars to attack staff trying to remove him from a cell and another prisoner using an improvised weapon made out of a pan handle and a craft knife to slash a victim’s face, the logs show.
They are included in a heavily redacted list of assaults recorded in the 12 months up to April 30 this year which has been obtained by Metro.co.uk.
Andrew Neilson, director of campaigns at the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: ‘While violent incidents may be expected in a high security prison like Frankland, which holds prisoners who have committed very serious offences, these figures are nonetheless shocking
‘The prison system more generally is under-resourced and under-staffed, and is increasingly unable to provide even basic levels of safety for staff and people in prison. It would be of real concern if the high security estate started to fall under these same pressures.’
Several other incidents suggest that prisoners are taking ‘bounties’ to carry out attacks. They include one inmate claiming he had a £10,000 price on his head and another described as a ‘self-confessed racist’ carrying out attacks in exchange for vapes.
The jail houses some of the UK’s most notorious prisoners including Wayne Couzens, who is serving a whole life term for the abduction, murder and rape of Sarah Everard, and serial killer Levi Bellfield, who is serving two whole life orders for three murders and an attempted murder.
Bellfield, 55, has been allowed to marry behind bars after officials said earlier this month there was no way to block the move.
The incidents include 105 which have been verified and 45 which are unsubstantiated, the MoJ said in notes accompanying the disclosure.
Assaults are defined as physical or verbal attacks in the dataset.
Separate figures provided by the government show that assaults across the prison estate in England and Wales are down by 30% on 2019.
A £100 million investment in security has included equipping officers with PAVA incapacitant spray, police-style restraints, body-worn cameras and X-ray body scanners to detect contraband. The funding was announced in 2019 as ‘part of a crackdown on crime behind bars’.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which came into force in June 2022, has increased the maximum penalty for assaulting prison officers to up to two years’ imprisonment. The measures are part of the Prison Service’s ‘zero tolerance’ approach to violence in prisons.
A spokesperson said: ‘We do not tolerate assaults in prisons and our £100m security investment is clamping down on the weapons, drugs, and mobile phones that fuel violence behind bars.’
Two men have been charged by Durham Constabulary with Section 18 wounding with intent over the incident in December.
Brian Townsend, 39 and Peter Brown, 55 are due to appear at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court on July 5.
MORE : Prisoners ‘taking bounties’ to carry out attacks at top security Frankland jail
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