Probation Officer's Fight for Life After Brutal Attack

Last year, probation officer Natasha Thorpe endured a terrifying eight-minute ordeal when client Ryan Gee attacked her with knives and a gun in her Preston office. Thorpe, a mother of two, sustained four stab wounds but fought for her life, drawing strength from thoughts of her children.

Gee, a career criminal and convicted paedophile, was jailed for life for attempted murder, with a minimum of 16 years before parole eligibility. This incident, along with another stabbing of a probation worker in Oxford just four months later, has prompted a national review of security measures.

Recommendations include providing staff with bleed kits, personal safety training, and body cameras. Pilot schemes for enhanced security at probation offices, such as knife arches and metal detectors, are also being considered. However, the probation officers' union, Napo, expresses concern that the true scale of risks is not being adequately recorded or addressed.

Napo points to recent 'all-staff alerts' regarding high-risk offenders, including threats of murder against female officers. The union is urging the Minister for Prisons and Probation to ensure such threats are formally logged as health and safety incidents and that a national protocol is established for handling high-risk offenders.

The Ministry of Justice maintains that violence against probation officers is unacceptable and that new security measures are being rolled out. However, with some prisoners being released earlier, union leaders argue that more urgent action is needed to reassure and protect an overstretched workforce.