A man convicted of killing a grieving mother with “industrial strength” acid has launched a terror attack on prison staff after becoming radicalised behind bars, according to reports.
Xeneral Imiuru, also known as Xeneral Webster, is said to have feigned a suicide attempt in order to lure guards to his cell in HMP Winchester.
When they approached his seemingly lifeless body, he leapt to his feet and launched what The Times describes as a “copycat jihadist attack” with an improvised blade, although fortunately they were able to restrain him without injury.
It is the second known attack of this sort in a British prison in 2020, with terrorist “emir” Brusthom Ziamani and another prisoner having stabbed and slashed a number of prison staff with makeshift weapons while wearing fake bomb belts and screaming “Allahu Akbar!”
Unlike Imiuru, Ziamani was already a hardened jihadist when he went to prison, for a plot to behead a British soldier in emulation of the radical Islamic terrorists who assassinated Lee Rigby in the street.
According to fellow inmates, the so-called emir “once tried to organise a coup against the prison system” and “would also hold sharia courts in his prison cell”, ordering punishment beatings for violations of Islamic law.
Ziamani’s prison, which was exposed as a hotbed of Muslim gangs and forced conversions in 2011, was also home to Usman Khan, another already convicted terrorist who went on the commit a terrorist attack — although Khan killed members of the public after being released on licence early, rather than attacking prison staff.
“It’s not clear yet what the motive is but the features of this attack in what ought to be the most secure environment in any prison suggest audacity and careful pre-meditation at the least” said Ian Acheson, a former prison governor who conducted the 2016 review of extremism in prisons, in comments to The Times on the most recent attack.
“The attack could well have been inspired by recent violent extremism inside and outside the prison walls,” he added.
“It’s extremely important that the police investigation is speedy and transparent and that a terrorist motive is thoroughly investigated.”