Washington prison guard stabbed by inmate launches campaign for protective equipment in UK jails
A former prison officer from Washington who was left with life-threatening injuries after being attacked and stabbed by an inmate has called for for mandatory protective gear for all prison staff in the UK.
Claire Lewis, 50, was working at HMP Frankland in Durham at the time of the attack.
She was speaking out following the recent incident at the same prison which saw guards attacked with hot oil and home-made weapons.
Four prison officers were injured at the jail on April 12 by Manchester bomb plotter Hashem Abedi, with three taken to hospital.
Claire said the the news “broke her heart” and “brought everything back” from when she was injured 15 years ago.
She added: “It’s incredible that this has happened 15 years on and that the staff do not have the protection they should have.
“You have police officers, counter-terrorism officers, when they go and arrest people, they have ballistic vests, they have tasers, they have extendable batons.
“When we walk into that prison we have a uniform and an extendable baton.”
Claire was 35 years old when she was attacked by Kevan Thakrar, who is serving a life sentence for murder and attempted murder, on March 13 2010.
Recalling her terrifying ordeal, Claire said: “My colleague and I went to the cell door. I opened the cell door. He pulled the cell door back in an instant, and he lunged at my colleague.
“I saw him stab him and then he turned to me and said, I’m gonna kill you - so I ran for my life.
“I ran and he chased us and chased us. Then he stabbed me in the back. I slipped and then he stabbed me in the back and then I kept running.
“Then he said I’ll finish it.”
Claire sustained nerve damage to her back from the attack and still has a large scar.
She damaged both of her knees and has had patella replacement surgery and still relies on daily medication for pain relief and for her mental health issues.
Claire is now campaigning for every prison officer in the UK to be equipped with anti-stab and anti-slash garments.
She added: “The time I was there (at HMP Frankland) I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it absolutely broke my heart when I lost my career after what happened to me.
“The whole petition, it’s not about me. It’s about the other staff that have been recently attacked.
“This cannot go on because someone will end up dead.”
According to data from the Ministry for Justice the number of assaults on staff in adult prisons in England and Wales per year has reached its highest level in a decade.
Some 10,605 assaults on staff in male and female jails were recorded in 2024, up from 9,204 in 2023 and nearly three times the 3,640 in 2014.
Responding to the situation, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced the use of tasers will be trialled in prisons and confirmed the prison service will conduct a “snap review” of the use of protective body armour for prison officers.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We will do whatever we can to protect our hardworking staff.
“The Lord Chancellor has announced a review into protective body armour and a trial of tasers in jails to better respond to serious incidents.
“But it is clear fundamental change is needed, which is why we’re also reforming our jails so they create better citizens, not better criminals.”