Prison officer is left with horrific scars throughout his face after being attacked with a disposable razor inside Britain’s infamous ‘Monster Mansion’ jail

A prison officer was horrifically slashed across the face by a notoriously violent prisoner serving life for murder with an improvised weapon made from a disposable razor.

The experienced officer, in his 40s, faces being scarred for life after he was viciously cut twice across the face by an inmate at Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire as this disturbing image shows.

The bleeding officer, who MailOnline is not naming, had to be rushed to Pinderfields Hospital in the town where he required more than 30 stitches to the two injuries which stretched from side of his right eye to the corner of his mouth and from his cheek to his lip.

MailOnline understands that his alleged assailant Martin Bates, 35, a con serving life for murder who has a history of violence inside prison.

Bates was moved to Wakefield – which has been dubbed ‘Monster Mansion’ because of the large number of dangerous prisoners it holds – only six months ago after previously assaulting a prison guard at HMP Manchester.

Yet within two days of moving to Wakefield, Bates slashed and tried to strangle notorious baby killer Stephen Boden and was moved to ‘Rule 45’ to be segregated from other prisoners in solitary confinement.

It is believed the attacker may have used the blade from a disposable safety razor to make a covert weapon.

Safety razors are in the process of being replaced by electric razors at 31 of the most violent prisons in England, including Wakefield, following a campaign by the Prisoner Officers’ Association.

This horrific photograph graphically illustrates the need for this move – as Britain’s prison officers struggle to keep order as our overcrowded jails reach breaking point.

A fellow prison officer told MailOnline: ‘The officer’s wife also works in the prison as well, in admin, and her heart must have skipped a beat when she heard the emergency shout of ‘care team to F-wing’.

‘Once she’d heard it was Stuart, she immediately went to him and joined him in the ambulance.’

Shocking photos of the severe facial injuries, his white shirt covered in blood, have been circulated on WhatsApp groups by fellow prison officers who are angry about the violence they are facing every day in Britain’s prisons, which even Prime Minister Keir Starmer admits is ‘broken’.

In November it was revealed that assaults on prison officers reached a new high with official figures from the MoJ showing a record 10,281 assaults on jail staff, in the year to June 2024, up 30 per cent on the previous 12 months.

Some 974 of these were serious assaults, a 24 per cent jump.

And last year, the Ministry of Justice announced that wet razors are to be banned at all men’s prisons with inmates issued with their own electric shaver instead at taxpayers’ expense, but it is understood that at Wakefield the changeover won’t be complete until the end of March 2025.

The switch to electric followed a campaign by the Prison Officers’ Association which featured graphic photographs of injuries inflicted on staff by prisoners using razor blades.

A two-year trial began in 2022, in which razors were withdrawn at seven English jails – six male, one female – with different alternatives made available.

Then in May, former Tory Prisons Minister Edward Argar said that razors would be banned initially at 31 closed men’s prisons with the highest levels of violence, which include Wakefield.

Argar told MPs last year: ‘Safety in prisons continues to be of paramount importance and we remain committed to tackling violence against both staff and prisoners.

‘When the Government launched the Prisons Strategy White Paper in 2021, we pledged to look at alternatives to the use of wet-shave razors in prisons, which can be used to self-harm and to carry out assaults.

‘Recent serious assaults on prison staff illustrate the potential danger posed by wet-shave razors in prisons.’

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said: ‘We take violence against our hard-working staff incredibly seriously and anyone found guilty of wrongdoing will be punished.

‘It would be inappropriate to comment further while the police investigate.’

West Yorkshire Police confirmed that they are investigating the incident at Wakefield on January 17.

HMP Wakefield earned its grim nickname because of the high number sex offenders, murders and other violent prisoners among its 600 population.

Current notorious inmates believed to be housed there include 97-year-old child molester and serial killer Sidney Cooke, who raped and murdered Mark Tildesley, Jason Swift and Barry Lewis. Nicknamed ‘Hissing Sid’, he was the leader of a paedophile ring suspected of up to twenty child murders of young boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

Also believed to be in Wakefield is paedophile Roy Whiting, who kidnapped and murdered Sarah Payne in 2000, as well as ‘House of Horror’ killer Jeremy Bamber, convicted of the murder of his adoptive mother, father, sister and his sister’s two sons in 1985.

Bates, who has now been moved to HMP Full Sutton, near York, was jailed for life in 2021 for bludgeoning to death a friend while he slept, following a drunken row.

John Littlewood, 36, was found dead with serious head injuries at an address in Third Street in the village of Blackhall Colliery, County Durham, in July 2019.

Bates initially denied murder but changed his plea to guilty during his trial at Teesside Crown Court.

He was given a minimum tariff of 24 years.

The Northern Echo reported that Mr Littlewood and Bates had spent the day drinking before a row erupted.

Durham Police said Mr Littlewood suffered catastrophic head injuries after being repeatedly beaten with a blunt instrument in the early hours of 26 July 2019.

His body was found four days later, sparking a ‘long and complex’ investigation.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Littlewood’s mother, Pamela Hall, paid tribute to her son, who was also known as John D.

She said: ‘The fact he was murdered was bad enough [but] this person could have taken responsibility from the day he was arrested, which would have prevented us having to listen to the final moments of John D’s life at the trial.

‘This has been unbearable at times and no words can explain the pain and torture that I have gone through.

‘There are no words to describe the pain, which we all feel, but we hope that the justice served will hopefully give us some comfort knowing the person responsible for the murder of my son can’t harm anyone else.’