Inmate had been cuffed to warder before escape Prison officers lose sacking appeal despite commendation
AN INMATE at one of Britain’s most notorious prisons escaped – despite being chained to a warder in the toilet.
The violent thug, who was on one side of a toilet door while the officer was on the other, used soap to lubricate his wrist then squeeze free of cuffs. He emerged brandishing a DIY knife made from a smashed plastic dish in the toilet cubicle.
A judge commended two prison officers at Hewell Prison, Redditch, for the “real risks” they faced – but backed their sacking after the escape.
Anjit Uppal and Clive Kieff were threatened with being stabbed by the prisoner, who was treated at a hospital for neck injuries, before he fled. The inmate, described as a danger to women, was later captured in the nursing quarters of the town’s Alexandra Hospital.
The two officers, with 29 years experience them, were dismissed after being accused of a number of “missed opportunities”, including failing to double-handcuff the prisoner, who was seen as an escape risk, and not following him.
They took their case for unfair dismissal to Birmingham Employment tribunal, but judge Rohan Pirani upheld the Ministry of Justice’s actions. He did, however, have sympathy for Mr Uppal and Mr Kieff.
“Both were long-serving officers with unblemished records and they found themselves in a situation in which they were required to make quick decisions and were likely to have been affected by both adrenalin and fear,” he explained. “They faced a challenging and scary set of circumstances and deserve commendation for doing a job which includes real risk to their health and safety.”
The escape in June 2015 was unusual in the extreme. The prisoner, referred to only as Prisoner X, got away despite being initially chained to Mr Kieff while on the toilet.
The officer was on the outside of the cubicle and the 31-year-old on the inside with the door closed.
Mr Uppal believes he used soap to squeeze his hand free of the cuffs. He then armed himself with a sliver of plastic snapped from a dish in the toilet, and emerged, brandishing the weapon. “He threatened to stab us with the plastic – I was frightened,” Mr Uppal admitted.
The violent inmate, with a history of assaulting staff and an escape from a Nottinghamshire prison under his belt, had initially been found in his cell with a ligature round his neck.
His hand was also bloody. National press reported at the time that he risked death by hanging himself as part of the escape plot. Prisoner X was serving three years and two months for a catalogue of offences.
He was rushed, unconcious, to Redditch’s Alexandra Hospital, escorted by the two prison officers. After being X-rayed, the prisoner was taken to a ward still handcuffed to Mr Kieff.
He made his escape after asking for the toilet. Mr Uppal said: “The prisoner was still chained to Mr Kieff while in the toilet, with the door closed, for about 10 minutes. Somehow he managed to removed the chain from his wrist, possibly with the help of soap in the toilet, and cover his unchained wrist on leaving with toilet paper.”
The prisoner, wearing only a T-shirt, boxer shorts and socks, fled through two automatic doors, threatening staff as he ran down corridors.
At a previous hearing, both Mr Uppal and Mr Kieff maintained that they should not have lost their jobs because another prison officer had also been part of the escort.
But Mr David Maxwell, representing the Ministry of Justice, said: “There were a number of missed opportunities and failures.”
Mr Pirani rejected the claims for unfair dismissal.
Both claimants had admitted gross misconduct, he said, and that they had “fallen a long way short of what could reasonably have been expected of them.”
They faced a challenging and scary circumstances and deserve commendation Rohan Pirani
officers’