PRESTON PRISON RIOT - THE SHAPE OF THINGS
TO COME?
A
RIOT between British and Muslim inmates broke out in a
high-security
prison after an al-Qaeda
terrorist's cell was torched. Algerian Kamel Bourgass, 34 - serving
life for murdering Special Branch detective Stephen Oake, 40 - escaped
injury in the blaze. But then, in retaliation, a British
prisoner was slashed across the cheek with a home-made knife as he walked
along a corridor. When pals heard, fighting between
around 60 British and Muslim prisoners broke out at Frankland Prison, Co
Durham. Staff used batons as they tried to
separate cons exchanging blows and kicks. More officers raced from other wings
to help and the riot was eventually brought under control. Four staff - one with a broken arm -
and two lags needed hospital treatment. A prison source said: "It was a
free-for-all. They were really going at it, dozens and dozens of them pummelling
each other. That place is a powder keg, this has been brewing for ages and
officers fear it will kick off again." Steve Cox, of the Prison Officers'
Association, said: "There is an ongoing
problem
at Frankland borne out of the fact that terrorist prisoners are housed with other prisoners."
British prisons: Victorian
- overcrowded and a
powder keg of racial
tensions....
