A prisoner who staged a 12-hour protest on the roof of Strangeways "will now face punishment", prison bosses have vowed.
Police said the male inmate "willingly came down from the roof" at about 4.15am this morning (Thursday). Officers swarmed the streets around the perimeter of the city centre prison shortly after 4:30pm yesterday.
Roads in the area were taped off as the man could be seen scaling the roof of one of the buildings in the prison grounds. Wearing a bin bag, the inmate was seen waving his arms in the air and repeatedly shouting at the top of his voice.
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During the protest, he sketched the words 'FREE IPPZ' on the prison roof and continually shouted out the same phrase. The message is believed refers to The Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence (IPP) sentence, which was abolished in 2012 and branded 'unjust'.
At one stage, he was seen making a love heart gesture and wearing a makeshift poncho as the rain lashed down.
The Manchester Evening News understands that the prison, officially titled HMP Manchester, was put on lockdown during the incident.
The inmate remained on the roof for almost 12 hours as an increasing number of spectators showed up to watch the incident unfold. As the night fell, the protestor could be seen drying his clothes on the roof using one of the shiny metal chimneys, seemingly undeterred by the plummeting temperatures.
The protest eventually came to an end in the early hours of this morning. All police cordons were removed and ambulances were seen leaving the prison at about 4.30pm.
In a statement, a Prison Service spokesperson said: “Staff safely resolved this incident and the prisoner will face punishment as disorder in prisons is not tolerated."
A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police added: "At 4:15 am this morning (Thursday 13 April) the male prisoner willingly came down from the roof and is back in the custody of prison staff."
The prison – still known to many by its former name 'Strangeways' - is one of the country's largest high security, category A men's prisons. The jail, to the north of Manchester city centre, which has capacity for over 1,200 inmates, was rebuilt following the infamous Strangeways riot of April 1990 – the biggest disturbance in prison service history.
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