titantoo
03-11-2005, 10:30 PM
Asian inmate attacked weeks before racist death
Prison adviser accuses Feltham staff of being casual about assault
Helen Carter
Saturday March 12, 2005
Guardian
An Asian teenager was badly beaten in a racist attack and left without treatment for 24 hours at Feltham young offenders institution just weeks before the murder of another Muslim youth, an inquiry heard yesterday. The teenager's injuries, which included a broken jaw, were so serious that he had to spend 19 days in hospital after he finally did receive help.
The incident was revealed in a letter sent by the Prison Service's Muslim adviser, Maqsood Ahmed, to Nick Pascoe, the governor of Feltham, Middlesex. Mr Ahmed said he was "deeply shocked" that staff appeared to be "so casual" about the attack by two white inmates.
The letter detailing the assault claims emerged on the final day of the hearing into the killing of Zahid Mubarek who was battered with a table leg by his racist cellmate, Robert Stewart, 24.
Zahid, 19, from Waltham stow, east London, died in hospital seven days after the assault in March 2000. Stewart was convicted of murder and given a life sentence.
Mr Ahmed claimed that the two alleged attackers in the earlier incident were allowed to carry on with their practice of harassment and beating of young vulnerable Muslim prisoners.
Even though the victim, and his Asian friend, who was also assaulted, gave statements at the time it took a year before the police were called.
When the police investigated the incident, they charged the suspects with causing actual bodily harm. Although they were identified to staff at the institution, they were never disciplined.
The unnamed victim of the first assault was watching television with his friend in January 2000 when two prisoners allegedly subjected them to racist insults and then physically assaulted them.
Mr Ahmed said it was a very serious incident which could have resulted in death. "I am deeply shocked to learn that staff at Feltham seem to be very casual about this racist incident and have resumed 'business as usual' so soon after the tragic death of Zahid Mubarek," he wrote.
"We do not appear to have learned anything from past experiences and Muslim prisoners rightly feel discriminated against, unsafe, and completely let down."
He added that it was "of great concern" that Muslims felt they were not being treated equally by the complaints system and believed they would be further victimised if they complained.
The inquiry has heard claims that prison officers placed Zahid with a white racist for their perverted pleasure.
Duncan Keys, a Prison Officers' Association official, said officers deliberately put the teenager with a violent racist, in a game known as Gladiator or Colosseum. Staff would choose either a white and ethnic minority inmate, a weak and a strong inmate or two perceived bullies. "The intention was to see whether or not the two fell out and came to blows. Officers were betting on the outcome," Mr Keys said.
He was so concerned that the union would do nothing that he made an anonymous call to the Commission for Racial Equality.
Speaking outside the hearing, the Mubarek's family solicitor, Imran Khan, said: "If true, it is nothing short of blood sport. We are horrified by the suggestion that this game was going on and that there was a wall of silence to prevent this from coming out."
The inquiry has heard that in the two years leading up to Mubarek's murder, there had been five prisoner-on-prisoner murders within the prison system and Stewart had been implicated in one of those.
The chairman of the inquiry, Mr Justice Keith, is expected to report later this year.
Prison adviser accuses Feltham staff of being casual about assault
Helen Carter
Saturday March 12, 2005
Guardian
An Asian teenager was badly beaten in a racist attack and left without treatment for 24 hours at Feltham young offenders institution just weeks before the murder of another Muslim youth, an inquiry heard yesterday. The teenager's injuries, which included a broken jaw, were so serious that he had to spend 19 days in hospital after he finally did receive help.
The incident was revealed in a letter sent by the Prison Service's Muslim adviser, Maqsood Ahmed, to Nick Pascoe, the governor of Feltham, Middlesex. Mr Ahmed said he was "deeply shocked" that staff appeared to be "so casual" about the attack by two white inmates.
The letter detailing the assault claims emerged on the final day of the hearing into the killing of Zahid Mubarek who was battered with a table leg by his racist cellmate, Robert Stewart, 24.
Zahid, 19, from Waltham stow, east London, died in hospital seven days after the assault in March 2000. Stewart was convicted of murder and given a life sentence.
Mr Ahmed claimed that the two alleged attackers in the earlier incident were allowed to carry on with their practice of harassment and beating of young vulnerable Muslim prisoners.
Even though the victim, and his Asian friend, who was also assaulted, gave statements at the time it took a year before the police were called.
When the police investigated the incident, they charged the suspects with causing actual bodily harm. Although they were identified to staff at the institution, they were never disciplined.
The unnamed victim of the first assault was watching television with his friend in January 2000 when two prisoners allegedly subjected them to racist insults and then physically assaulted them.
Mr Ahmed said it was a very serious incident which could have resulted in death. "I am deeply shocked to learn that staff at Feltham seem to be very casual about this racist incident and have resumed 'business as usual' so soon after the tragic death of Zahid Mubarek," he wrote.
"We do not appear to have learned anything from past experiences and Muslim prisoners rightly feel discriminated against, unsafe, and completely let down."
He added that it was "of great concern" that Muslims felt they were not being treated equally by the complaints system and believed they would be further victimised if they complained.
The inquiry has heard claims that prison officers placed Zahid with a white racist for their perverted pleasure.
Duncan Keys, a Prison Officers' Association official, said officers deliberately put the teenager with a violent racist, in a game known as Gladiator or Colosseum. Staff would choose either a white and ethnic minority inmate, a weak and a strong inmate or two perceived bullies. "The intention was to see whether or not the two fell out and came to blows. Officers were betting on the outcome," Mr Keys said.
He was so concerned that the union would do nothing that he made an anonymous call to the Commission for Racial Equality.
Speaking outside the hearing, the Mubarek's family solicitor, Imran Khan, said: "If true, it is nothing short of blood sport. We are horrified by the suggestion that this game was going on and that there was a wall of silence to prevent this from coming out."
The inquiry has heard that in the two years leading up to Mubarek's murder, there had been five prisoner-on-prisoner murders within the prison system and Stewart had been implicated in one of those.
The chairman of the inquiry, Mr Justice Keith, is expected to report later this year.