PRISON supervision of Southport monster Axel Rudakubana was downgraded just weeks before he hurled scalding water at a warder, The Sun on Sunday can reveal.
The triple child-killer was also allowed a kettle in his cell and is believed to have used it for the attack.
ReutersPrison supervision of Southport monster Axel Rudakubana was downgraded just weeks before he hurled scalding water at a warder[/caption]
GettyBelmarsh’s HSU was built in 1991 to house IRA prisoners but has since held Russian intelligence agents, terrorists and notorious violent inmate Charles Bronson[/caption]
The 18-year-old had previously been monitored round the clock after being put on a self-harm prevention plan in the healthcare unit at high-security Belmarsh prison in South East London.
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said changing his status was a “major security failure”.
Rudakubana struck on Thursday, around two weeks after the downgrade.
It was also just a month after Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi injured four prison officers by throwing boiling butter at them and lashing out with a knife at HMP Frankland, Co Durham.
Abedi, 28, is also now in Belmarsh — though he is in its High Security Unit.
Prisoners thought to be at a high risk of suicide or self-harm are placed in the healthcare unit.
They are watched over more often, while others there are checked on at “non-regular” intervals.
Staff also try to chat with lags to judge their risk of self-harm.
We should do everything we can to humanise prison, but that must be secondary to the individual risk each prisoner poses
Ex-prison governor Ian Acheson
A source said: “Rudakubana was in the healthcare unit under 24/7 monitoring but this was downgraded in the last couple of weeks.
“He wasn’t even in the High Security Unit at all which begs the question, ‘Why not?’. He must be one of the most dangerous prisoners. It seems a huge mistake.”
Prison Officers’ Association boss Mark Fairhurst said kettles are used by lags for drinks and ready meals, but added: “Why are we giving people like Rudakubana the same privileges and freedoms as other inmates? It makes no sense.
“We have to base everything on risk and don’t give access to things with which they can attack staff.
“We have to have super-max security units, based on the American system, for inmates like him. Prisoners like this are not going to reform or rehabilitate.”
Ex-prison governor Ian Acheson added: “It would not be unusual for someone like Rudakubana to be judged at acute risk of suicide due to the nature of his offence, his age and sentence length — and to be put in the healthcare centre.
“If it was a constant watch, the highest level of surveillance, an officer would be sat on a chair at a cell door, constantly observing and attempting to interact with a prisoner, recording all such exchanges.
“Therefore, an attack like this is probably more likely on a lowered- risk staggered watch, where he would be checked at random times to an agreed frequency.
“We should do everything we can to humanise prison, but that must be secondary to the individual risk each prisoner poses.”
Rudakubana was caged for life in January with a minimum term of 52 years, though he is unlikely to ever be released.
He murdered Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop last July.
He also ordered the highly poisonous chemical ricin and had an Al Qaeda terrorist manual at home.
Yet officials decided he did not meet the criteria to be moved to the HSU in their most recent assessment of him. And it is unclear if he has ever been held there.
It is ludicrous that the most dangerous and unrepentant prisoners are being given luxuries, like access to kettles, in top security prisons
Robert Jenrick
An inmate can be moved there for national security reasons, to prevent terrorism, to prevent the prisoner radicalising others, or if an inmate could “undermine good order and discipline”.
Belmarsh’s HSU was built in 1991 to house IRA prisoners but has since held Russian intelligence agents, terrorists and notorious violent inmate Charles Bronson.
The so-called “prison within a prison” has 48 single cells — which sources said do not have kettles.
PARudakubana was caged for life in January with a minimum term of 52 years, though he is unlikely to ever be released[/caption]
Tory MP Mr Jenrick said: “It is ludicrous that the most dangerous and unrepentant prisoners are being given luxuries, like access to kettles, in top-security prisons.
“The right of our prison officers to do their job safely is infinitely more important than the right of these sick criminals to have a cup of tea. This is a major security failure.
“The Ministry of Justice must stop appeasing evil and dangerous prisoners. The safety of prison officers must always come first.”
It was initially feared Rudakubana had mixed the water with sugar to make so-called “prison napalm”.
The warder targeted was taken to the nearby Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich but is expected to return to work next week.
The Prison Service said: “Violence in prison will not be tolerated, and we will always push for the strongest possible punishment for attacks on our hard-working staff.”
Last night, it added that it did not comment on the conditions of individual prisoners.
The Met Police confirmed: “The Met is investigating after a prison officer was subject to a serious assault at HMP Belmarsh on the afternoon of May 8.”
PARudakubana fatally wounded Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop last July[/caption]
Get a grip on lags or guard will be killed
By Robert Jenrick, Shadow Justice Secretary
SINCE when was the right of an evil murderer to make a cup of tea more important than the safety of prison officers?
They do a very tough job dealing with the very worst in society.
We must have their backs.
I fear if Labour’s Justice Secretary doesn’t urgently get a grip, it’s only a matter of time before one gets killed.
Just last week, I raised concerns that security procedures at HMP Belmarsh were slipping.
But warnings like mine keep being ignored.
Why wasn’t Southport killer Axel Rudakubana under 24/7 surveillance, given what we know about the risk that he poses?
For all the Justice Secretary’s empty promises of action, Rudakubana still had access to a kettle.
That’s despite the fact that he’s being held at the country’s highest-security prison, for the most appalling crime in years.
How can it be right that the most dangerous and unrepentant criminals have access to luxuries like these in a top security prison?
I couldn’t care less if Rudakubana never had a hot drink again.
This latest attack must end the appeasement of these vile criminals and the advocates of this ridiculous rights culture.
If that means confining the most dangerous prisoners to cells with only a bed and a toilet, so be it.
If it means segregating people like this from the rest of the prison population, so be it.
Let segregation mean segregation. No interaction, no privileges — and certainly no cups of tea. Enough.
Prison officers come face-to-face with the worst of human nature — and in these cases, pure evil.
The very least that the Government can do is to ensure that they are safe.
When they go to work in the morning, their families should be confident they will be able to return home in the evening.
Governors should never pander to vicious criminals like Rudakubana.
We cannot allow an environment in which sick men like him can intimidate officers.
This is now a full-blown crisis and it demands fundamental change.
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