The victim of a horrific Frankland jail assault is campaigning for all UK prison staff to be given stab vests. Former prison officer Claire Lewis spoke out as a Manchester bomb widower Steve Howe told of his fury after terrorist Hashem Abedi was able to arm himself behind bars.
Abedi’s horrific assault in Frankland’s separation unit left officers with injuries including a severed artery in the neck, third degree burns and a punctured lung. It has led to calls for prison officers to carry Taser guns like police officers, who were given anti-stab vests in 1994. The Prison Officers Association say PPE must be offered before one of their members dies.
Claire, 50, is now campaigning for it to be introduced. The mum-of-two, from Washington, Tyne and Wear, was stabbed in the back by triple killer Kevan Thakrar in 2010. She was forced to retire from Frankland, near Durham, due to the severity of her injuries and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
She told the Mirror: “All prison staff should be wearing stab vests. I want to start a campaign on the issue of PPE. We need to act now before an officer is killed on duty. We also need to look at the use of separation units. If you put all the worst extremists together, it is asking for trouble. PPE should be worn not just by staff in these units but the whole high security estate.”
Mr Howe, who lost his wife Alison Howe, 45, of Oldham, Lancs., in the Manchester bombing, is suffering ‘uncontrollable bursts of rage’ after learning of Abedi’s terrifying attack on prison staff. Mr Howe, a retired builder with six children, has struggled to come to terms with her death. “I suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder,” he said. “It affects my family. It affects me. I get road rage, I get Tesco rage. You could explode at somebody that’s passing you in the car.”
Hashem Abedi, 28, was arrested the day after the Manchester attack in Libya, where he had gone shortly before the 2017 bombing. In 2020, he was found guilty of 22 murders, attempted murders and conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life. He was sentenced to a record 55-year minimum term in prison.
Mr Howe added: “I turned on the TV and saw the pictures of the 22 victims on the screen, one of them being my wife. Then it showed a picture of Hashem Abedi and his associates in jail, swanning about, laughing and joking… I was devastated. My PTSD went through the ceiling. I feel so disgusted with it all.”
The number of prison officers for whom a medical condition has contributed to their departure is at the highest level on record. Ministry of Justice figures show that 657 prison officers were dismissed for this reason last year. Mark Fairhurst, the chairman of the POA, said: “They’re dealing with more and more trauma, self-harm, suicide, homicide, threats, abuse, less and support from the employer, they haven’t got the equipment they need, and more of my members are getting diagnosed with PTSD.”
The POA is demanding that officers are equipped with stab-proof vests and Tasers at all times. At present they can only carry pepper spray and batons. It has been said that prison service leaders oppose the use of stab-proof vests because they look “too militaristic.”
Claire’s husband Ged Mulheran, 56, who served as a police officer for 26 years before he retired, said: “They do not have to look militaristic. You can get protection equipment like a T-shirt. But it is anti-stab, anti-bite and most importantly for prison staff, anti-slash for bladed articles. So many staff are being forced to retire, at a high cost in compensation paid by the taxpayer.
“We have a situation now where traffic wardens handing out parking tickets wear stab vests in some areas, but we do not have them in prisons. That cannot be right.”
Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said an independent review is looking at how we “better protect our prison officers in the future”.
“The Prison Service will also conduct a snap review into whether protective body armour should be made available to frontline staff,” she added. “I know the dangers of the warped ideology of Islamist extremists. I will not tolerate it within our prisons. Wherever I find opportunity to better protect our staff and the public, I will do so.”
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