Ex-prison officer who was stabbed by inmate calls for mandatory protective gear

A former prison officer who was attacked by an inmate while she was on duty is campaigning for mandatory protective gear for all prison staff in the UK.

Claire Lewis, 50, from Washington in Sunderland, was left with life-threatening injuries after the attack at HMP Frankland in 2010 and has been unable to work ever since.

Following a recent incident at the same prison which saw guards attacked with hot oil and home-made weapons, Ms Lewis is calling for every officer to be equipped with anti-stab and anti-slash garments.

Four prison officers were injured at the jail in Co Durham on April 12 by Manchester bomb plotter Hashem Abedi, with three taken to hospital.

Ms Lewis said the news “broke her heart” and “brought everything back” from when she was injured 15 years ago.

“It’s incredible that this has happened 15 years on and that the staff do not have the protection they should have,” Ms Lewis told the PA news agency.

“You have police officers, counter-terrorism officers, when they go and arrest people, they have ballistic vests, they have Tasers, they have extendable batons.

“When we walk into that prison we have a uniform and an extendable baton.”

According to data from the Ministry for Justice the number of assaults on staff in adult prisons in England and Wales per year has reached its highest level in a decade.

Some 10,605 assaults on staff in male and female jails were recorded in 2024, up from 9,204 in 2023 and nearly three times the 3,640 in 2014.

Ms Lewis was 35 years old when she was attacked by Kevan Thakrar, who is serving a life sentence for murder and attempted murder on March 13 2010.

She described how Thakrar attacked her and her colleague with a broken bottle of hot pepper sauce after they approached his cell.

“My colleague and I went to the cell door. I opened the cell door. He pulled the cell door back in an instant, and he lunged at my colleague,” she said.

“I saw him stab him and then he turned to me and said, I’m gonna f****** kill you.”

“So I ran for my life.

“I ran and he chased us and chased us. Then he stabbed me in the back. I slipped and then he stabbed me in the back and then I kept running.

“Then he said I’ll finish it.”

Ms Lewis sustained neuropathic nerve damage to her back from the attack and still has a large scar.

She damaged both of her knees and has had patella replacement surgery.

She still relies on daily medication for pain relief and for her mental health issues.

“The time I was there (at HMP Frankland) I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it absolutely broke my heart when I lost my career after what happened to me,” she said.

“The whole petition, it’s not about me. It’s about the other staff that have been recently attacked.

“This cannot go on because someone will end up dead.”

In a response to the rise in attacks Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced the use of Tasers will be trialled in prisons and confirmed the prison service will conduct a “snap review” of the use of protective body armour for prison officers.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We will do whatever we can to protect our hardworking staff.

“The Lord Chancellor has announced a review into protective body armour and a trial of Tasers in jails to better respond to serious incidents.

“But it is clear fundamental change is needed, which is why we’re also reforming our jails so they create better citizens, not better criminals.”