450 WEAPONS SEIZED IN JAILS EVERY MONTH

Guns, blades & sprays confiscated

toothbrushes or pens. They are easily concealed and can be used to inflict catastrophic injuries.

Neil said: “These are brutal weapons that do real damage. To make it worse, cons are melting in two blades so that when they launch an attack it leaves a layer of skin between the wounds that cannot be stitched back up.”

In February last year, Khader Saleh,

25, was stabbed to death with a makeshift “shank” at Wormwood Scrubs in west London.

Last November, the ringleader of Britain’s worst-ever child grooming gang was left scarred for life in a jail attack. Ahdel Ali,

31, needed 40 stitches after being targeted with a makeshift knife by another con at Wakefield high security nick, West Yorks.

A week later, child killer Roy Whiting was stabbed with a makeshift blade at the same prison. And in July, ISIS fanatic Husnain Rashid, 32, who plotted to murder Prince George, had his face slashed with a blade melted into a toothbrush at Strangeways in Manchester.

At HMP Wandsworth, 65 weapons were found in six months of searches before February last year.

A report by the HM Inspectorate of Prisons in July found staff shortages meant visitors were not routinely scanned. Mr Sambrook said: “It’s one example of what can happen when you don’t get the staff needed.”