'Stressed' killer cleared of attack on guards in Durham's Frankland Prison (From The Northern Echo)

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'Stressed' killer cleared of attack on guards in Durham's Frankland Prison

8:00am Thursday 10th November 2011 in News Photograph of the Author By Mark Tallentire

NOT GUILTY: Kevan Thakrar

A TRIPLE murderer has been cleared of stabbing three North-East prison officers after he claimed to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by his previous prison experiences.

Last night, the brother of one of the officers injured at Frankland Prison, near Durham, branded the jury’s decision an “absolute disgrace”

to every serviceman and woman who has suffered PTSD while serving their country.

Lee Wylde spoke out after killer Kevan Thakrar, who admitted stabbing his brother Craig Wylde and fellow officers Claire Lewis and Neil Walker, was cleared of two counts of attempted murder and three of wounding with intent at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday.

Thakrar lashed out with a broken chilli bottle in selfdefence as he feared he was about to be attacked, the court heard.

Mr Wylde, himself a former serviceman who suffers from PTSD, said: “It’s an absolute disgrace – unbelievable.

“This is the week of Remembrance Day. This is an embarrassment and a disgrace to every single serviceman and woman who’s been in a disaster, genuinely suffers from PTSD and tries to live their lives normally. It’s as if it’s the officers’ own fault.”

Dave Thompson, who retired as Frankland governor last month and was in charge when the incident happened, said: “Staff at Frankland and elsewhere across the service will feel let down, dismayed and humiliated by part of the criminal justice system in which they serve.

“They deserve better recognition and they deserve better support than we have seen from the outcome of this case.”

He added that the injured officers were decent people made to feel like they themselves have been on trial.

Mr Walker was a hero for saving Ms Lewis from worse injuries by tackling Thakrar but Mr Wylde and Ms Lewis would not work in the prison service again, he added.

Mr Thomspon added that prison officers’ work required the highest level of professionalism, courage and conviction which was “often unseen and under-reported”: “In this case, other criminal justice professionals have been amazed by how professional and restrained they were in dealing with the assailant immediately after the incident.”

Thakrar was serving at least 35 years of a life sentence for the drug-related murder of three men and the attempted murder of two women in Bishops Stortford with his brother, Miran, in 2007 when he lashed out with a 285ml glass sauce container in Frankland, in March last year.

Prosecutors claimed Thakrar, now 24, was acting with murderous intent.

But jurors heard he was suffering from PTSD following previous “prison experiences”

including an alleged heavy beating by off-duty prison officers at Woodhill prison, in Milton Keynes, in 2008.

A jury took eight hours and 15 minutes to clear him of all charges.

Judge Mr Justice Simon expressed sympathy for the injured guards, saying it was not part of the defence case that they had brought their injuries on themselves.

In a statement, Thakrar said he was deeply sorry for his actions but claimed he was a victim of the prison system and wrongly imprisoned.

He called for “urgent scrutiny of the appalling treatment and abuse which mounts to nothing short of torture” in English prisons.

A week after the attack by Thakrar, who was transferred to Wakefield prison, Soham killer Ian Huntley had his neck slashed by a fellow Frankland inmate, Damien Fawkes.

Fawkes went on to murder convicted paedophile Colin Hatch in a cell at Full Sutton Prison in February.

Comments(35)

stevegg says...
10:50am Thu 10 Nov 11

An absolute disgrace and as rightly pointed an affront to all service personell. We seem to be in a ludicrous situation now where its the victims who are put on trial not the offenders. If this animal thinks "he was suffering from PTSD following previous “prison experiences” he should be sent to a foreign jail and see how they compare! So this scum can now do the same wherever he goes and blame in PTSD! As Ive always maintained our so called "justice" system is pathetic and defends these animals. Millions of people have lost all faith in our criminal system. When will they learn people like him have no rights.