1990 Strangeways Prison riot courts, hangings, castrations and that between eleven and twenty prisoners had been killed. On 3 April the front page of the "Daily Mirror" read "Prison Mob 'Hang Cop' ", and claimed a former policeman imprisoned at Strangeways for rape had been killed by prisoners. The newspaper was forced to publish a retraction admitting that "reliable police sources" had been mistaken, when it transpired that the man was actually alive and imprisoned in HM Prison Leeds. Following the end of the rooftop protest the newspapers condemned the prisoners, with "The Daily Telegraph" describing the riot as "a degrading public spectacle", and
1990 Strangeways Prison riot 10:20 am one of the remaining prisoners, a seventeen-year-old on remand for joyriding, was captured leaving five prisoners remaining on the roof. When prison officers reached the roof they put up a sign similar to the ones used by prisoners throughout the protest, which read "HMP in charge—no visits". At 6:20 pm the remaining five prisoners were removed from the roof in a "cherry picker" hydraulic platform, giving clenched fist salutes to the press and public as they descended. During the course of the 25-day riot, the longest in British penal history, 147 prison officers and 47 prisoners had been