Police officer is 'critically ill after being stabbed in chest at HMP Frankland: Officer is 'conscious and talking' after attack in 'Monster Mansion' jail that houses criminals Michael Adebolajo, Wayne Couzens, Ian Huntley and Levi Bellfield

A police officer is seriously ill after being stabbed in the chest at a high-security prison.

The officer, a detective constable from Greater Manchester Police, was attacked at HMP Frankland in Durham just after 11am on Tuesday.  

He suffered critical injuries and was taken to hospital by ambulance, but following treatment his condition is currently described as stable.

A man in his 60s has been detained and a police investigation is now underway, although initial reports suggested the incident was not linked to any form of extremism. 

Frankland is known as the 'Monster Mansion' due to the many convicted murderers, rapists and terrorists imprisoned there - including Ian Huntley, Wayne Couzens, Michael Adebolajo and Levi Bellfield. 

Other criminals housed in the prison include al-Qaeda 'dirty bomber' plotter Dhiren Barot and Thomas Mair, the Nazi-obsessed terrorist who murdered Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016. 

Today's incident is only the latest attack on an official in the 850-capacity jail, with a prison warden stabbed repeatedly in January by a Muslim convert shouting 'Allahu Akbar', according to reports at the time. 

Detective Chief Inspector Chris Smiles, who is leading the Durham Constabulary investigation, said: 'First and foremost, our thoughts are with our colleague, who suffered appalling injuries while simply doing his job. 

'Thankfully, his condition is no longer critical and we wish him a full and speedy recovery.

'We are liaising with the victim and his family and our investigation is ongoing'.

A separate police statement described the officer as 'conscious and talking'.  

Inmates being held at the jail include Damien Bendall, who is serving a whole life term for murdering his partner Terri Harris, 35, her daughter Lacey Bennett, 11, her son John Paul Bennett, 13, and Lacey's friend Connie Gent, also 11, in Killamarsh, Derbyshire, in 2021.

The Sun reported in May that he had attacked another inmate at the prison with a claw hammer.

Double murderer and necrophiliac David Fuller appeared via videolink from the jail for his trial for sexually abusing bodies in 2022, while Soham murderer Ian Huntley is also said to be held there.

Liberian war criminal Charles Taylor, who is serving a 50-year sentence, is another notorious Frankland resident.

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, who murdered at least 13 women in the 1970s and 1980s, was living at the prison before he died in 2020, and it also formerly housed Charles Bronson. 

Frankland's latest inspection in March this year described the prison as 'a very capable institution, with fewer assaults recorded and less use of force than at similar establishments'. 

Despite this, it found half of prisoners said they had felt unsafe at some point, 'perhaps due to the prison's complex, high-risk population'. 

The inspection continued: 'Although violence and use of force had increased since the last inspection, levels were lower than in other category A establishments, partly as a result of detailed oversight by leaders. 

'Leaders had also prioritised reducing levels of self-harm, which were now lower than at the time of the previous inspection and at other high security prisons.'

There were nearly 8,000 assaults on prison staff during the year to June 2023, almost one an hour on average, official data shows. 

HMP Feltham - a young offenders' institution - was recently named as the most violent in England and Wales. 

Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor painted a disturbing picture of conditions inside the facility, describing a volatile environment where children aged between 15 and 18 play 'the big man' and have to be kept apart.

Housing 84 boys inside a run-down, poorly-insulated building that suffers from frequent leaks, the facility saw 410 violent incidents in the year to March, equating to a rate of 488 incidents per 100 children.

These figures suggest six times more violence at the west London site than at HMP Bedford - one of the most violent adult prisons - where a recent inspection found the rate of violence was calculated at 80.6 incidents per 100 prisoners.

Over last summer the level of disorder reached such a level that dogs were introduced to Feltham to keep order. One person assaulted 38 members of staff in seven months, according to a separate report published in August 2023.