Government set to review how the Manchester Arena bomb plotter ‘could attack prison guards’

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.

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.

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