Extreme incidents of violence inside HMP Belmarsh where it’s been claimed ‘jihad networking’ was rife, have included attacks with boiling water, tins used as knives and gang-related beatings.
HMP Belmarsh is a Category A prison and therefore houses the most dangerous, violent and notorious criminals, from terrorists to drug dealers and sex offenders. Present and past infamous inmates include rapist and former Met officer David Carrick, armed robber Charles Bronson, Soham murderer Ian Huntley and extreme Muslim preacher Abu Hamza.
The jail itself, located next to the River Thames in south east London, is known as Britain’s toughest thanks to the threat those inside its walls pose and there have been a catalogue of gruesome attacks against inmates and prison officers over the years. A recent report reveals almost 300 violent incidents took place in the previous year.
In a redacted log obtained by Metro, one horrific assault last April reportedly involved a prison orderly who was a victim of ‘jugging’ – where a victim has hot or boiling water thrown over them. The worker was allegedly left with the skin peeling off his forehead after a mixture of water, oil and Vaseline was thrown at him while he was collecting food boxes.
The report is said to read: “[Redacted’s] forehead has peeled off due to the burns.” Apparently the inmate felt he was being disrespected after the orderly had given him a ‘dirty’ food box the previous day. The assault was reported to the police and the National Incident Management Unit, which receives reports of all serious incidents in prisons and the orderly was tended to by prison healthcare staff.
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The recent log follows the previous year’s in which over 200 incidents took place in an 11 month period, with many of the victims allegedly saying they didn’t want to report the perpetrators for fear of reprisal. According to Metro, documents showed numerous incidents from November 2021 to October 2022 included some terrifying acts of brutality. Two ‘juggings’ took place, with one of the targets attending hospital and another needing an ambulance.
There were reportedly two incidents using the same kind of make-shift weapon where a piece of tin had been melted into a toothbrush handle. In one a prisoner assaulted another with the potentially lethal item and he was left with cuts to his face, head and fingers – they refused to have photographs taken or to report the crime.
Other improvised weapons included a tin of tuna in a sock, which was found on an inmate fighting with another in a shower recess. In a similar attack a prisoner was said to have tried to attack another in a queue for medication. A sock was found nearby with two bars of soap inside it, which the perpetrator apparently used to hit another inmate round the head with – they were restrained by officers.
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In another disturbing incident, according to the log, a prisoner was found holding another apparently unconscious cellmate with a ligature made out of a bedsheet around his neck, disabling him with his leg in a choke hold. The victim’s skin had turned blue / grey and his pulse was checked after the attacker and the ligature were removed by officers. There was no information about his condition as all personal details had been removed from the document before it was released to the publication, the Metro reports.
Suspected gang-related attacks were also reported – in one, five inmates attacked another, with one of the group using a make-shift weapon with a blade to inflict a cut on the victim’s head. It was reportedly described as a “melee” in the log. A ‘code blue’ was called after a prisoner was attacked by two others in an exercise yard. The prisoner apparently suffered a seizure and felt sick and dizzy after being hit on the head, but they refused to leave the prison and were kept in the health care centre on site.
In this year’s records, which showed 282 assaults had taken place, 14 of those were identified as gang related. One of them reportedly involved a running conflict between seven prisoners. An entry in the log reportedly read: “A fight between seven prisoners, six prisoners assaulted one. Allegedly this is a gang-related conflict, and a follow on from the fight that occurred on Monday in reception.” The victim suffered facial injuries.
Grahame Morris MP, a member of the Justice Unions Parliamentary Group, told Metro: “I am deeply alarmed by the increase in prisoner violence in the last 12 months. Assaults against staff are up 16%, and the total number of assaults are up 21% across the prison system.”
Last year the Ministry of Justice said it refuses to accept violence in prisons. It said: “The MoJ can confirm that we will never tolerate violence against our hard-working officers and assaults have fallen by more than 20% since 2019. Our £125 million investment to improve safety in prisons has clamped down on the weapons, drugs and mobile phones that fuel crime and violence behind bars, while we have also equipped officers with PAVA spray to boost protection.”
Historically, Belmarsh has been the destination for high-risk terrorists, which led to it being dubbed Britain’s Guantanamo Bay. They are held in the high security unit of the jail, which is essentially like a prison within a prison. In 2022 three convicted terrorists, including Hashem Abedi, who is serving life for 22 murders in the Manchester Arena bombing, were found guilty of a “vicious attack” on a prison officer, who was set upon in his office in the unit. The officer said he feared for his life during the assault.
There have been serious concerns that extremists held in the unit are networking, exchanging ideas and engaging in ‘jihad banter’. Isis supporter Mohiussunnath Chowdhury who attacked police officers with a sword outside Buckingham Palace in 2017, told undercover officers he associated with “like minded brothers” inside the prison.
According to the Independent, he also told his trial he was “surrounded by jihadis” in Belmarsh, where they would often discuss terror attacks. “There’s many many radical Muslims in prison and usually that’s all they would talk about,” he said.
When he was asked in court about a fantasy he had of ploughing a vehicle into Remembrance Day crowds, Chowdhury said it had been part of the “jihad banter that I had in prison”, saying: “This is the kind of stuff I would hear other prison inmates talk about.”
Despite the danger lurking within Belmarsh, there has been some encouraging news from within the prison walls. In 2022 Oxford University graduate and prison officer Herman, who was 24 at the time, said saw first-hand the positivity that can take hold, with encouraging education programmes, intimate scenes of inmates writing Christmas cards to their children at home, and even wellbeing days. She revealed that every few months football tournaments take place at the men’s prison – which has a capacity of 770 prisoners – where for one afternoon staff and cellmates forget about their hierarchy.
She told the Mirror that even though she’s rubbing shoulders with the country’s most dangerous, she hadn’t felt like her safety had been jeopardised. “I’ve never felt in danger,” she asserted, using her physical characteristics to her advantage. “I would say I’m aware of my size and gender in that environment, in which I think actually, sometimes it can be a massive asset.
“The presence of female staff is really, really positive. Obviously, we need both genders in there but I find being female has an impact on being able to de-escalate situations. They [prisoners] don’t see you as much of a physically threatening presence. And certainly, I think being young is not a disadvantage. I think there’s a lot of opportunity as a young person for creativity in prisons.”
She added: “I come home from work way more often with stories about how I helped someone enrol in education or something funny that someone told me or an interesting thing that a prisoner taught me or a conversation I had.”
You can watch Belmarsh: Serial killers and High Security on Channel 5 at 10pm tonight
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