Prison safety a 'total disgrace', home secretary admits after Southport killer 'attacks prison officer with boiling water'

Daily Mail​

11-05-2025

Prison safety is a 'total disgrace,' the home secretary has admitted after the Southport triple killer allegedly attacked a prison officer.
Supervision of Axel Rudakubana, 18, was reportedly downgraded just before he used a kettle in his cell to boil water which he then launched over the officer at HMP Belmarsh on Thursday.
It comes just weeks after Manchester Arena bomber Hashem Abedi attacked three prison officers at HMP Frankland by stabbing them with homemade weapons and throwing hot cooking oil on them.
The attacks have led to calls for Britain's most dangerous inmates to be housed in US-style 'supermax' conditions with no contact with other prisoners or access to kettles and cooking facilities.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper agreed there was a 'crisis in our prisons.'
'[The attack was] a total disgrace,' she told LBC Radio.
'Prison officers do a very difficult job and they deserve to be kept safe and have our support, and so we are taking these incidents very seriously.'
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick posted a video in which he said he had warned about the safety of prison officers and called for the Government to 'get a grip' before a staff member is killed.
Ms Cooper responded: 'There is a crisis in our prisons that was created by the Conservative government, so the idea that we should take seriously anything that any of those former ministers say about the prison system that they left in total crisis…they really need to take some responsibility and start apologising for it.'
Home secretary Yvette Cooper said there was a 'crisis in our prisons' and the attack was a 'total disgrace.'
The number of assaults on staff in adult prisons in England and Wales has reached its highest level in a decade, according to Ministry of Justice data.
More than 10,000 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.
Chairman of the Prison Officers' Association, Mark Fairhurst, called for 'supermax' facilities to house dangerous inmates like Rudakubana and Abedi.
'For the most violent, dangerous criminals who are intent on committing atrocities and attacking staff, the time has come for control and containment,' he said.
'This cohort of prisoners should not enjoy the same privileges and freedoms as those who do conform. 'Super-max is your basic entitlements nothing more.
'You would be cuffed every time you are unlocked [from your cell] and escorted by three staff. The gym consists of a rowing machine on the landing. And there are no possessions allowed in a cell apart from a radio and a book to read.'
The only federal supermax prison in the US is ADX Florence in Colorado, nicknamed the Alcatraz of the Rockies, and currently home to British terrorists including Abu Hamza and ISIS 'Beatles' Alex Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh.
Former prison governor and extremism adviser Ian Acheson said there was no rule that mandated Rudakubana to be allowed a kettle in his cell.
'This process seems to have fallen apart at HMP Belmarsh and other high security prisons where the rights of prisoners take precedence over safety of staff and a naive assumption that giving them things including potentially lethal weapons will appease them,' he added.
'The tail wags the dog, and officers are hospitalised as a consequence. It's no wonder new officers join and leave such a dangerous environment with increasing rapidity.'
Rudakubana was jailed for a minimum of 52 years in January for the murders of three girls and attempted murders of eight other children, class instructor Leanne Lucas and businessman John Hayes.
The Sun reported that his prison supervision was downgraded in recent weeks as he was previously in a healthcare unit being monitored round the clock.
In response to the rise in attacks, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood previously announced that 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.