Child killer Axel Rudakubana is to be subjected to a Hannibal Lecter-style security regime including a five-guard escort and being fed through a hatch following his boiling water attack on a prison officer. The 18-year-old Southport monster — serving 52 years for butchering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last July — will be allowed out only briefly to shower or to exercise on the yard.
And it is understood he could also be moved today from HMP Belmarsh, South East London, where Thursday’s vicious scalding attack took place. Supervision of Rudakubana, was reportedly downgraded just before he used a kettle in his cell to boil water which he then threw over the officer at HMP Belmarsh on Thursday. It came weeks after Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi attacked three officers at HMP Frankland by stabbing them with homemade weapons and throwing hot cooking oil on them.
Prison officers are demanded better protection with calls for more of Britain's most dangerous inmates to be housed in US-style 'supermax' conditions with no contact with other prisoners or access to kettles and cooking facilities – similar to what Rudakubana must now face.
A source told The Sun: “They will treat Rudakubana much more severely. It will not be far off Hannibal Lecter because they will take no chances.”
Serial killer Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins, was kept in a maximum-security cell in 1991 blockbuster film The Silence Of The Lambs.
The source added: “Rudakubana will only be able to open the latch on his side once the officers have shut the box and closed it on their side.
“This is a huge deal in UK jails as it is considered it dehumanises inmates.
“He will be let out of his cell only after being searched and escorted by at least five officers, who will be in PPE and could use a dog.
“The unit will be locked down each time he is moved.”
Investigators fear his attack was a bid to compete with terrorist Abedi, who scalded four staff at HMP Frankland, Co Durham, weeks earlier.
The source said: “Abedi has just been moved to Belmarsh. The timing is no coincidence.”
Rudakubana could now be moved to a prison in the North or to HMP Whitemoor, Cambridgeshire.
Rudakubana, was jailed for a minimum of 52 years at Liverpool Crown Court in January after killing Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Alice Aguiar, nine, and Bebe King, six, and attacking 10 others in his deadly school holiday assault.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper branded the attacks “a disgrace” and admitted: “There’s a crisis in prisons.”
According to Ministry of Justice data, more than 10,000 assaults on staff were recorded in 2024, up from 9,204 in 2023. In 2014 there were 3,640.
Chairman of the Prison Officers' Association Mark Fairhurst called for 'supermax' facilities for dangerous inmates such as Rudakubana and Abedi as a matter of course.
He said: “The time has come for control and containment. Supermax is your basic entitlements. The gym consists of a rowing machine on the landing. And there are no possessions allowed in a cell apart from a radio and a book to read.”
Former prison governor Ian Acheson questioned why Rudakubana had a kettle in his cell, claiming it showed “the rights of prisoners take precedence over safety of staff”.
The Ministry of Justice said: “We take attacks on staff incredibly seriously.”
