A double murderer who was awarded £7,500 compensation and left taxpayers footing a £234,000 legal bill previously held a prison officer hostage. Fuad Awale was convicted in January 2013 after shooting two teenagers in the head. He was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 38 years. Awale was subsequently given a further six years for threatening to kill the prison officer. He was awarded compensation when the High Court ruled his treatment in prison breached his human rights.
Awale ambushed prison warden Richard Thompson inside Full Sutton prison, near York, in May 2013. Along with fellow Islamist extremist, Feroz Khan, Awale held Mr Thompson captive for five hours, during which time he was pinned to a chair, beaten and threatened with death.
Somali-born Awale pressed a makeshift blade to the officer’s throat at one point, threatening: “Stop struggling. I’ve killed two people. I’ll kill you.”
Mr Thompson recalled the ordeal in court, telling jurors: “I saw Awale playing with the knives. At one stage he was rubbing the knives together, rather like someone who was preparing to carve up a Sunday roast.”
Awale asked Khan: “Can I give him one in a non-vital area?” He later said: “I thought his head would have come off by now.”
Khan fractured Mr Thompson’s eye socket as he and Awale demanded the release of hate preacher, Abu Qatada, and Roshanara Choudhry, a student who attacked Labour MP Stephen Timms with a knife at his constituency surgery in May 2010.
Hijacking the prison tannoy system, Khan announced the hostage-taking and called for the news to be shared with the media.
Negotiator John Elliot told the Old Bailey in 2014 that he informed Awale and Khan their timing was “s***” and there was no prospect of their demand for media attention gaining traction as it was the final of either “X Factor or Britain’s Got Talent” so people wouldn’t be watching the news.
Riot police eventually broke in and freed Mr Thompson, according to the Daily Mail.
Awale was sentenced to six more years in prison in addition to the 38-year minimum sentence he was serving for the execution-style shooting of two teens in a row over drugs.
Islamic extremist Awale won the High Court case over the way decisions to house him in a close supervision centre (CSC) had affected his mental health and allegedly breached his human rights. He had been kept in solitary confinement from other inmates because of the risks he poses.
A series of events during his time in the CSC system meant by the time of the High Court ruling in September 2024 he had not been able to meet any other inmates since March 2023.
The High Court ruled his treatment breached Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) which protects the right to a private and family life.
Details of Awale’s compensation were revealed in a letter from Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy to Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick, first reported by The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Lammy said the Government would “keep under review” whether the ECHR was acting as a barrier to protecting national security.
Mr Jenrick told the Telegraph: “It’s a sick joke that taxpayers are handing this man £7,500 in compensation and footing a legal bill of over £230,000.
“This is a double murderer and extremist who took a prison officer hostage. This is the reality of the ECHR: it prioritises the ‘rights’ of terrorists to associate with other extremists over the safety of our prison officers.
“Labour are cowing to terrorists and the human rights brigade. They must introduce emergency legislation to carve these monsters out of the ECHR immediately.”
In his letter to Mr Jenrick, the Deputy Prime Minister said: “This Government will not be cowed by legal threats from prisoners.
“The separation centre remains an essential operational tool to protect the public and other prisoners and when dangerous radicalisers pose a risk, they will be placed in one.
“This Government is committed to the European Convention on Human Rights.
“Commitment does not mean complacency, however, and we must keep under review whether the application of the convention is acting as a barrier to us protecting national security.”
Jonathan Hall KC, Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, told the BBC on Saturday that the Government could have appealed against the ECHR judgement but must have concluded the prospect of success was not high.
He said the Government will find itself in a difficult position if it allows the judgement to stand and if it doesn’t change the law in response there is a risk it will happen again.
