More jail time for convicted terrorists after London prison guard attacked

Three convicted terrorists have had time added to their sentences for attacking a prison officer at Belmarsh prison in south-east London.

It happened in May 2020 when 57-year-old Paul Edwards was hit with a chair and repeatedly punched and kicked.

Parsons Green Tube bomber Ahmed Hassan and Muhammed Saeed were both given a further three years, while the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber, Hashem Abedi was given a further three years and 10 months.

The court heard 22 year old Abedi also kicked another officer who came to his colleagues aid.

Abedi, who conspired with his elder brother, suicide bomber Salman Abedi, 22, in the terror attack that killed 22 people and injured hundreds more at the Manchester Arena on May 22 2017, is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 55 years.

He was suspected of being the "amir" or "leader" of a group of Islamist terrorist inmates inside Belmarsh's "prison within a prison", Woolwich Crown Court heard.

Abedi is seen smiling in CCTV footage before he, Hassan and Saeed storm Mr Edwards' office, where he operated an "open door policy".

Mr Edwards, a custodian manager who has worked at Belmarsh for 25 years, told jurors;

"I feared for my life, and I genuinely thought if I hadn't fought back I would've ended up with at least extreme injuries or dead,".

He said "it felt like a lifetime" before colleagues, including Nick Barnett, who has been a prison officer for 21 years, came to his aid seconds later.

"It was just like a pack of animals on Mr Edwards," said Mr Barnett, who was kicked in the leg by Abedi during the melee.

The judge said they had "shown disrespect for society and its rules" with the prison officers facing "danger every single day".

"The courts must deal firmly with anyone who breaches the law in such grave circumstances," she told them.

"Mr Abedi, you have ahead of you many decades in custody.

"You say the sentence I pass will make no difference, and perhaps in your mind it will make no difference.

"But it is important that the law is applied and that each and every prisoner knows that if there is an attack on prison officers they will be brought to justice."

Some members of the jury, who were not told about their convictions, were visibly shocked when they heard Abedi was found guilty by a jury in March 2020 of 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and plotting to cause an explosion likely to endanger life over the Manchester Arena attack.

Hassan was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 34 years in 2018 after planting a device that injured 51 passengers in September 2017.

Saeed was jailed for five years last May after pleading guilty to five counts of possessing an article for terrorist purposes, having shared so-called Islamic State propaganda and spoken about carrying out a knife attack in London.

All three were involved in a fight with a group of non-Muslim prisoners on March 1 2020, when their incentive and earned privileges (IEP) level was downgraded from "standard" to "basic".

This meant they lost privileges including their televisions, and would have had less association time, fewer visits and no access to items such as game stations and DVD players.

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.