Two inmates charged with murder after 'disembowelled' paedophile is killed in jail attack

10-3-2011 United Kingdom:

Nathan Mann, 23, and Michael Parr, 32, charged with murdering Mitchell Harrison, 23;
Soham killer Ian Huntley had his throat slashed at same prison last year

Two prisoners have appeared in court charged with the murder of a paedophile inmate who died after being disembowelled in an attack in his cell.

Nathan Mann, 23, and Michael Parr, 32, spoke only to confirm their names at the five-minute hearing at Peterlee Magistrates Court.

They are accused of killing Mitchell Harrison, 23, at high-security Frankland Prison, in County Durham - where last year Soham killer Ian Huntley was slashed in the throat by a fellow inmate.

Serial sex attacker Harrison was killed with makeshift weapons, thought to be razor blades melted into toothbrush handles.

Harrison, who was sentenced in January 2010 to a minimum of four-and-a-half years for raping a 13-year-old girl, was found by warders shortly after 10am on Saturday.

A source close to the prison said: ‘To all intents and purposes he had been disembowelled. There was blood everywhere.

‘We are still trying to work out the exact chain of events.’

Magistrates set Mann and Parr's case to be heard at Newcastle Crown Court, where the pair will next appear on Wednesday.

Harrison was jailed indefinitely at Carlisle Crown Court in January last year as the judge said he posed a ‘substantial risk’ to young girls.

He lured his teenage victim to his flat in Kendal, Cumbria. Once inside he ordered her to strip before raping her twice.

It was the third time Harrison, originally from Wolverhampton, had been in trouble for sexually assaulting girls.

When he was 13 he was given a formal warning for indecently assaulting a seven-year-old and when he was 15 he was taken to court for threatening to rape a 15-year-old classmate.

Detective Chief Inspector Steve Chapman, of Durham Police, said a pathologist found Harrison had died of ‘multiple injuries’.

Last night criminology expert Professor David Wilson, of Birmingham City University, said the extremely violent nature of the attack was significant.

He said: ‘The question is how can something like this take place in Frankland and why didn’t the staff protect him?’

The Ministry of Justice said the incident was a matter for police. ..Source.. by Chris Greenwood and Paul Sims