Wild Belmarsh moments – from jail employee romp to tuna can assault and mad escapes

Behind the partitions of Britain’s most infamous prisons inmates and wardens anticipate the sudden.

And whereas this rule additionally applies to HMP Belmarsh – one latest intercourse scandal brought about shockwaves all through the justice system.

That’s as a result of regardless of being the very best safety jail within the UK, the monster who murdered Zara Aleena was allegedly caught having intercourse with a feminine jail employee behind bars.

READ MORE: ‘Giggling’ Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s first phrases after jail launch for murdering mum

Check out extra jail tales right here

Law pupil Zara, 35, was strolling house from an evening out in Ilford, London, on June 26, 2022, when Jordan McSweeney, 30, dragged her into an alleyway the place he sexually assaulted her and beat her up earlier than leaving her for useless.

His punishment was being jailed for all times with a minimal time period of 38 years. But in latest days, it was reported that he bonked a feminine jail employee final yr.

The worker, who was not a jail officer, has been suspended from her job. She was additionally arrested earlier than being launched below investigation.

Disgusted, Zara’s aunt, Farah Naz, instructed the Mirror: “He is supposed to have 23 hours inside his cell so how can he supposedly meet someone like he did? How does a man who’s murdered a woman so brutally have access to a woman who is not a prison guard? A woman coming in from another organisation?

“What process is taking place to vet people who are going to interact with a Class A prisoner?”

But sticking up for the employee who’s accused of sleeping with McSweeney, she added: “I’m disappointed she was arrested because here is another woman who is a victim of this man and the system. She could have been killed. It’s the system that’s wrong. She’s been made a scapegoat.”

HMP Belmarsh

While investigations unravel the messy affair, beneath we check out different surprising occasions surrounding HMP Belmarsh.

The jail opened in 1991 in Thamesmead, south-east London, and it could possibly maintain 900 inmates. It initially had a fame as being “Britain’s Guantanamo Bay” after holding prisoners suspected of terrorism offences.

Belmarsh is now recognized for housing a few of the nation’s most harmful criminals together with Ian Huntley – who was initially despatched there after murdering Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Other well-known names to have stayed there embrace Charles Bronson and disgraced politician Jeffrey Archer, who described it as a “hell hole”. And infamous inmates previous and current embrace Lee Rigby’s killer, Michael Adebowale, and serial rapist cop, David Carrick.

In a uncommon interview with ITV News, one Belmarsh employee gave an perception into what it was like three months into her new job there.

Speaking in December 2022, she stated: “I’ve responded to two violent incidents so far with prisoners lashing out, one member of staff was punched. You don’t know what you’re running into, and that unknown is really scary.

“It’s nerve-racking just in terms of like it’s actually happening now, like this isn’t the training anymore, this is real life, but it’s really rewarding too.”

Her descriptions of violence have been backed up with ominious statistics final yr when it was revealed that the jail was plagued with “juggins” – a time period that means an assault utilizing boiling water.

A Metro Freedom of Information request additionally uncovered over 200 incidents between November 2021 and October 2022 together with blades being made out of tin and toothbrushes. The knowledge additionally confirmed how some inmates used bedsheets to choke fellow lags.

Wild moments

The grim actuality of jail life there was additionally uncovered in a Channel 5 documentary referred to as HMP Belmarsh: Maximum Security.

Babar Ahmad, who was detained within the UK with out trial for eight years, spoke in regards to the time issues took a nasty flip when prisoners used tuna cans to assault an officer.

He stated: “Occasionally you will get a prison officer who just wants to be an idiot. This officer would do something like taking an extra milk carton, or you’re not really allowed to have that one, or taking an extra pillow, taking an extra blanket. So a group of prisoners, they decided to teach him a lesson. They grabbed the officer, they took him inside the cell.

“They had tuna cans, which they had put inside socks and they just battered him. For about ten minutes they just battered him all over the place.”

And one other lag urged that officers being focused was not unusual at Belmarsh. Remembering his personal scrap, assassin Kevin Lane stated: “I went on escort one day, and some threats were made against me by a prison officer threatening to kill me.

“I said, ‘take these cuffs off and we’ll chat about it’. The cuffs came off during the search procedure, he wants me to stand there like a performing clown… I’ve taken my clothes off over ten times that day. It went off, I ended up knocking him spark out.”

One officer additionally spoke on digicam in regards to the barmy second two lags escaped throughout a switch earlier than being discovered operating by the streets of Bermondsey.

Explaining what occurred, George Shipton stated they fled from a safe van earlier than they have been caught. However, he added that one prisoner held a blade to his colleague’s throat through the incident.