Protester spends night on roof of HMP Manchester

A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said there was “no chance of escape” for the prisoner with the stand-off now into its 21st hour.

He also wrote a note on his T-shirt saying: “It’s not 1990 tell the Gov we’ve all had enough”.

It is not known why he is protesting at the prison, formerly known as Strangeways.

Horner was incarcerated after shooting his uncle dead with a sawed-off shotgun following a long-running family feud, according to local reports. “I strongly believe there will be riots”, he said.

SkyNews reported that Horner has food, water, cigarettes and blankets. The roof is surrounded by a prison yard, so although Horner was able to climb a fence to access it (apparently cutting himself in the process), he doesn’t have any way of getting off the Strangeways grounds.

Horner’s mother has asked him to end his protest, saying she thinks his actions will “achieve nothing”, and negotiators sent his sister up to the roof in a cherry-picker Monday evening in an attempt to talk him down.

He has been climbing poles and chimneys, smashing windows and banging a metal pole and walking on the edge of the roof.

He has been shouting that he intends to stay up on the roof for 40 days and 40 nights to beat a previous record, said Sky News North of England Correspondent Mike McCarthy, who is at the prison.

Resentment has been rising inside Strangeways over an alleged staffing crisis, resulting in inmates spending up to 23 hours a day in cells.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said there had been no disruption to any other prisoners.

“This has to be addressed as a matter of urgency”.

Horner, 35, is in his third year of a 27-year sentence.

Some inmates spent 25 days on the roof. One prisoner was killed during the riot and a prison officer died of a heart attack. More than 140 prison officers and 47 prisoners were injured.