United Kingdom: almost 80 Northern Ireland prison officers assaulted in a year, figures reveal

Nearly 80 prison officers were attacked in Northern Ireland during the past year, new figures have revealed.

A written question to the Justice Minister Claire Sugden by the UUP MLA Doug Beattie showed that 77 individual prison officers were assaulted between December 1, 2015, and November 11 last year.

Maghaberry Prison was the worst affected by far with assaults against 49 staff. Hydebank College which houses female prisoners and young offenders recorded attacks on 22 warders, with Magilligan Prison in Londonderry reporting six assaults.

The Justice Minister’s answer added that assaults in prison “cover a wide range of violent incidents and it is not possible to provide a further breakdown by type.”

In March last year, a separate Assembly question by the TUV leader Jim Allister showed that there had been 299 separate assaults over a three-year period, the equivalent of an attack every three days. Last November disturbing news emerged of how one female prison officer in Maghaberry’s Shimna House was tied to a chair with sticking tape by a number of prisoners who were later relocated in the general prison population.

An inside source at Maghaberry prison told the Sunday Life in November the incident showed how vulnerable overstretched prison staff felt.

“The gang involved in the sellotape assault should be brought before a court, not simply transferred to other wings at Maghaberry,” the source said.

“The female officer was terrified, she feared for her life.”

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