A police officer has been hospitalised after he was stabbed in the chest at a high-security prison in County Durham, police have said.
The officer is “conscious and talking” but remains in hospital following the incident at Frankland Prison.
The officer, who is from an outside force, was injured when visiting the prison just after 11am on Tuesday.
A spokesman for Durham Police said: “Shortly after 11am this morning, Durham Constabulary were called to an incident at HMP Frankland in Durham City.
“A police officer, who was visiting the facility from an outside force, suffered a stab wound to the chest during the incident.
“The injured officer has been taken to hospital by ambulance, where he is described as being ‘conscious and talking’.”
HMP Frankland is a category A men’s prison, the highest level of security which houses male prisoners who, if they were to escape, pose the highest threat to public security.
The prison holds more than 800 men and is located in the village of Brasside in County Durham.
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.
Other prisoners being held at the jail are thought to include Wayne Couzens, the-then serving police officer who kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard, and Levi Bellfield, who killed Milly Dowler, Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange, and tried to kill Kate Sheedy.
Double murderer and necrophiliac David Fuller appeared via video link 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.
There is no suggestion that any of these prisoners were involved in the stabbing incident.
