Prison chiefs dealing with contemporary safety disaster after assassin killed | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Prison chiefs are dealing with a contemporary safety disaster after a convicted assassin was killed by one other inmate.

John Mansfield, who was jailed for all times in 2007 for murdering Ann Alfanso, 63, was attacked on Sunday while being locked up in HMP Whitemoor.

A 44-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of homicide.

The newest high-profile safety incident got here lower than 24 hours after Hashem Abedi – one of many Manchester Arena bombing plotters –attacked three jail officers, stabbing them and throwing scorching butter or margarine of their faces.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman stated: “Police are investigating the death of prisoner John Mansfield at HMP Whitemoor on Sunday, April 13. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”

Serial thug Mansfield – with 75 earlier convictions – was jailed for 25 years in 2007 for the drug-fuelled homicide of neighbour Ann Alfanso, 63.

And in 2011 he was convicted of wounding a person he hated with a chair leg inside Manchester’s Strangeways Prison.

Mansfield then stabbed John Orme, 50, seven instances in a cold-blooded assault which severed an artery in his left arm, leaving him needing 22 stitches.

Mansfield original a weapon from a damaged plate and lay in await Orme to complete his jail work earlier than shocking him in his cell saying: “I have a present for you.”

The thug was jailed for all times for the assault on Orme and was warned he might by no means be launched.

Prison officers sustained life-threatening accidents together with burns, scalds and stab wounds within the “unprovoked” and “vicious” assault by Hashem Abedi.

The Ministry of Justice has vowed to hold out a overview into the assault.

Ian Acheson, a former jail governor who has suggested the Government on extremism in jails, instructed The Telegraph: “Two violent incidents over the weekend at our highest security prisons have lifted the lid on a collapse of security and safety for both staff and prisoners.

“This is completely unacceptable. But it is also becoming normalised. HMP Whitemoor, a modern, purpose built maximum security prison was described in 2023 by the Chief Inspector as the ‘filthiest’ prison he had ever inspected.

“If you can’t get the bins emptied in these places you can be sure everything else is going wrong too.”