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Mark Bridger attacked in prison Mark Bridger attacked in prison
(about 2 hours later)
Mark Bridger, who abducted and murdered five-year-old April Jones, has been attacked in prison. Mark Bridger, the former abattoir worker jailed for the sexually motivated murder of five-year-old April Jones, has been attacked in prison.
Bridger, who is serving a life sentence, was slashed across the face with a makeshift blade by a fellow inmate at HMP Wakefield on Sunday, the Sun reported. Bridger is serving a full-life term at Wakefield prison in West Yorkshire. He is understood to have been slashed across the face with a makeshift blade and is likely to be left permanently scarred.
He was taken to hospital where he was given stitches, the newspaper said. The Ministry of Justice refuses to talk about specific prisoners but in a statement it confirmed: "A prisoner from HMP Wakefield was taken to hospital on 7 July. The incident is being investigated by the police."
A Prison Service spokeswoman said: "A prisoner from HMP Wakefield was taken to hospital on 7 July. The incident is being investigated by the police." Wakefield, originally built as a "correction house" in the 16th century, is now a high security prison and is home to some of Britain's most notorious sex offenders including the child killers Roy Whiting, Robert Black and Levi Bellfield.
Bridger kidnapped April before sexually abusing her, murdering her and then disposing of her body last October. Bridger, 46, was convicted of abducting April as she played on her bicycle with a friend in the mid-Wales town of Machynlleth and murdering her. He was also found guilty of destroying, disposing of or concealing her remains, which have not been found.
He was given a whole life sentence in May by the trial judge, Mr Justice Griffith Williams, after a jury took four hours to find him guilty following a month-long trial. During his trial Bridger was held on remand at HMP Manchester, formerly Strangeways, where he was kept in isolation and under constant surveillance for fear he would be attacked or harm himself.
April had been playing with friends close to her home on the Bryn Y Gog estate in Machynlleth, mid-Wales, when Bridger enticed her into his car. After his conviction in May at Mold crown court in north Wales, Bridger was moved to Wakefield, sometimes dubbed the "Monster Mansion" because of the number of dangerous inmates it houses.
Following his arrest, officers found numerous indecent images on his computer. At the time prison sources acknowledged that his life would be under constant threat in prison. They said there was no known bounty on his head but fellow inmates would want to harm Bridger simply for the kudos of being the one to get to the UK's most reviled men.
The former abattoir worker has never revealed what he did with April's body, although traces of her blood were found all over his cottage and skull fragments were found in the fireplace. Wakefield's F wing features a "prison within a prison"– the close supervision centre where about half a dozen of Britain's most challenging inmates are held. It also houses a segregation area for men like Bridger who need protection from other prisoners.
Police believe Bridger dismembered the five-year-old's body before dumping the body parts at various locations in the hills, rivers and forests surrounding his home in Cienws. An inspection last year found the environment in F wing was poor. The report from the chief inspector of prison's, Nick Hardwick, said processes for managing bullying were also poor but incidents were low.
He was sent to Wakefield, the largest maximum security jail in the UK, which houses a number of child killers, including Roy Whiting, Levi Belfield and Mick Philpott. He added that the jail was "reasonably safe" and concluded: "The numbers of self-harm, bullying and use of force incidents were low. Most prisoners reported feeling safe."
Bridger had previously been kept away from other prisoners for his own safety, as attacks on child killers are not uncommon in Britain's jails. Despite tight security surrounding high-profile inmates, including segregation for paedophiles and child killers, attacks with improvised weapons do take place. Hardwick's report (pdf) did raise the issue about the number of men convicted of very serious sexual attacks who were "in denial" about their offences. "The prison service should consider whether it is right to place such a concentration of men in denial in one establishment," its said.
Ian Huntley, the killer of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, was attacked at Wakefield when murderer Mark Hobson threw a bucket of boiling water over him in September 2005. This is not the first time a high-profile child killer has been attacked in Wakefield. Former inmate Ian Huntley, who killed schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire, had a bucket of boiling water thrown over him in 2005. He was moved to HMP Frankland in January 2008, where his throat was slashed by another inmate in 2010.
Huntley was moved to HMP Frankland in January 2008, where his throat was slashed by another inmate in March 2010. Coincidentally, images of Holly and Jessica – together with other murder victims – were found on Bridger's laptop when he was arrested. Dyfed-Powys police liaised with the detective who led the Soham investigation during their inquiry into Bridger.
The attack on Bridger will once again focus attention on the safety of notorious prisoners. Earlier this year following the alleged murder of the child killer Subhan Anwar at the high-security Long Lartin jail in Worcestershire the prison officers' union, the POA, said violent attacks were on the increase and blamed closures, cuts and redundancies for the rise.
The union claimed that there was an average of 43 prisoner-on-prisoner assaults a day and eight assaults a day on prison officers.
Bridger, who lived in a cottage called Mount Pleasant a few miles from Machynlleth, was given a whole life sentence after a jury took four hours to find him guilty.
It emerged during the month-long trial that he had a collection of images of girls being abused and had collated pictures of April and her sisters from Facebook.
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