Prison Staff Attacked

Three female prison officers have been attacked and injured in Maghaberry prison.

Just days after high-level political praise for the work of an organisation, which supports injured prison staff, the attack took place during visiting time on Friday.

Staff had spotted a visitor trying to smuggle a watch to a prisoner and intervened.

As a result, one of the prison officers suffered broken ribs, another a broken wrist and a third was left with a bruised face.

Finlay Spratt, who is Chairman of the Prison Officers Association, said the attack was despicable.

It came less than a week after the NIO Prisons' Minister, Paul Goggins, paid tribute to the work of the Prison Service Trust in supporting staff that have left the Service, as well as dependent family members of deceased staff.

He was speaking as he formally opened the new Prison Service Trust (PST) Office in Coleraine.

It is the first office opened by the PST outside of their headquarters, which is located in the grounds of Hydebank Wood Young Offenders Centre and Prison.

"The Prison Service Trust has achieved a great deal in its six years of operation and I am pleased to re-iterate the Government's commitment to the Trust's work by providing funding of almost £600,000 for the next two years," he said, noting that the people of Northern Ireland owe the Prison Service a tremendous debt of gratitude for their dedication and commitment over many years in the most difficult of circumstances.

Speaking before the weekend attacks took place, he said: "Twenty-nine members of staff were murdered, while hundreds more were injured or intimidated.

"The Trust makes an important contribution through its wide range of services," he said.

The Minister also used the occasion to pay a special tribute to the memory of Mabel Hempton, a former Director of the Prison Service Trust, who died in March of this year.

In April 1979 Mabel and three of her prison officer colleagues were ambushed by the IRA as they left Armagh Prison.

One of her colleagues was killed in the attack, while Mabel and her other colleagues were seriously injured.

Mabel was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life and suffered great pain on a daily basis, but she dedicated her life to the Prison Service Trust when it became operational in 2003.

(BMcC)