Security alert after Wakefield prison officer takes keys home with him

THE Prison Service has said it cannot comment on whether all the locks at one of Britain’s most secure jails will have to be changed after an officer inadvertently took his keys home.
By The Newsroom
Published 24th Aug 2011, 14:53 BST

An urgent inquiry was launched after the incident at Wakefield Prison - a top security jail which houses some of the UK’s most notorious offenders.

A spokesman for the Prison Service said: “A member of staff at HMP Wakefield inadvertently took their keys out of the prison for a short period.

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“The incident was investigated as a matter of urgency, which included a forensic investigation of the key.

“Commenting on a relock of a prison is a potential breach of security.”

Breaches of security relating to keys are treated extremely seriously by prisons.

In June 2006 Feltham Young Offenders Institution had to be “relocked” after an ITV documentary about an inquiry into the murder of an Asian teenager included a shot of a lock and key.

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All locks in the west London establishment had to be changed at a cost of several hundred thousand pounds after the pictures were broadcast.

Experts said skilled locksmiths can make duplicate keys from detailed source material such as a close-up shot.

Wakefield Prison houses around 750 prisoners - mainly serious sex offenders including some with the highest possible security classification within the offender management system.

Among the notorious criminals who have been held at Wakefield are Soham killer Ian Huntley, crossbow cannibal Stephen Griffiths and Milly Dowler’s murderer, Levi Bellfield.

Serial killer Harold Shipman killed himself in the jail in 2004.