UK probes alleged attack on prison officer by triple killer
British police are investigating an alleged attack on a prison officer by a murderer who stabbed three girls to death last year, according to the prison service and UK media reports on Friday.
Axel Rudakubana is serving a minimum of 52 years in jail after killing the girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England, last year.
Ten others were wounded, including eight children, in one of the country’s worst mass stabbings in years.
On Thursday, the 18-year-old allegedly threw boiling water over an officer at Belmarsh prison in London, according to UK media reports.
“Police are investigating an attack on a prison officer at HMP Belmarsh yesterday,” a UK Prison Service spokesperson told Britain’s domestic Press Association news agency on Friday.
“Violence in prison will not be tolerated and we will always push for the strongest possible punishment for attacks on our hardworking staff.”
The agency reported that the prison officer was taken to hospital as a precaution but discharged the same day.
READ: ‘Evil’ UK child stabbing spree killer jailed for life
Southport stabbings
Rudakubana killed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, in the seaside resort near Liverpool on July 29, 2024.
The Southport stabbings sent shockwaves across the UK, triggering unrest and riots in more than a dozen English and Northern Irish towns and cities.
Authorities blamed far-right agitators for fuelling violence, including by sharing misinformation claiming the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.
The unrest linked to the killings lasted several days, and saw far-right rioters attack police, shops and hotels housing asylum seekers as well as mosques, with hundreds arrested and charged.
Last month, the UK’s justice ministry launched a review after the jailed plotter of a deadly 2017 bombing in Manchester, Hashem Abedi, was accused of throwing hot oil over prison guards and attacking them with makeshift weapons./das
