Murderer killed after being smacked over head with dumbbell inside jail gym (2025)

John Mansfield was killed while serving a life sentence at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire after he was jailed in 2014 for the murder of his elderly neighbour Ann Alfonso

Convicted murderer John Mansfield was confirmed to have been killed after he was clobbered with a weight in a savage gym attack at a top-security prison.

Locked up for life at HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire, Mansfield had murdered his elderly neighbour Ann Alfanso, 63, in a drug-crazed frenzy. However, the hardened criminal passed away last on Sunday from a head injury, prison officials confirmed. Reports currently say the 63-year-old got hit around the head by a dumbbell in the prison gym. A few women who have partners in prison initially told of the news to the press.

One woman said: "It happened inside a secure unit. I got told about this late at night. I got a phone call to say that someone had been murdered in the prison. I was worried because we did not get told who the victim was right away straight away. Things happen in that prison and nobody knows about it."

Despite being branded as one of the UK's most secure units, this bloody incident has concerned officials about a "collapse in security" in the prions holding the country's most dangerous prisoners, reports the Mirror.

Another woman told the Mail Online: "I heard it happened in the gym. The same thing, that someone got hit with weights and died.

"To be fair, he deserved it. He killed some 80 year old woman. People don't like that. "

A 44-year-old fellow prisoner has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is currently in the prison in relation to Mansfield's death.

Originally hailing from Manchester, Mansfield had been warned he was likely to spend the rest of his days behind bars following his brutal 2014 assault on John Orme, a convicted rapist incarcerated at HMP Full Sutton, near York.

At the age of 52, Mansfield reportedly approached Orme in his cell, telling him "I have a present for you" before slashing him seven times with a shattered plate in a spat over a cooking pot. The savage attack severed his victim's artery, leaving him needing 22 stitches.

Mansfield was given a second life sentence in 2014 for the assault. He also had a previous conviction from a separate 2011 incident where he battered a man he 'despised' with a chair leg inside Strangeways Prison in Manchester.

Initially commenting on Mansfield's death, a spokesperson for Cambridgeshire Police said that officers were called around 4.10pm on Sunday "following the discovery of the body of a man in his 60s at HMP Whitemoor near March".

A Prison Service spokesperson stated: "Police are investigating the death of prisoner John Mansfield at HMP Whitemoor on Sunday, April 13.

"It would be inappropriate to comment further at this time. "

The Prison and Probation Ombudsman will also conduct an investigation, as per standard procedure.

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