A PRISON service chief has suggested adopting a different approach for ”ideologically driven extremists” following Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi’s alleged attack on prison staff last month.

HM Prison and Probation Service director general of operations Phil Copple said today it was ”deeply concerning” that there were no warning signs before the attack at high security HMP Frankland on April 12, after which three officers received hospital treatment.

Abedi was held in its separation wing, used to house the most dangerous prisoners, with access to a kitchen and cooking facilities at the time.

”No-one saw that murderous attack coming from that individual,” Mr Copple told the Prisoner Officers Association (POA) annual conference. ”There wasn’t any sign of it in his behaviour — in fact others could be more challenging day-to-day.”

The approach of building relationships with inmates to assess risk ”isn’t effective for a small number of them,” he said. ”If that’s the case, we need to be prepared to adapt our approach.”

”If it’s nothing to do with emotions or mental health — if instead it’s a cold, calculated ideologically driven desire to kill prison staff because they are seen as a legitimate target, then we need a very different approach,” he added. 

”Both for how we manage those prisoners — and how we try to identify that balance effectively.”

”This raises big questions for us about separation centres and about how we manage some ideological extremists in our estate.

”The Lord Chancellor will commission an independent review, but it’s clear to me that we need to recalibrate and revise our approach.”