In February 2000, two 19-year-olds were locked in the same cell at Feltham Young Offender Institution. One was Zahid Mubarek, convicted of low-level theft and vehicle offences. The other was Robert Stewart, a prolific offender and known racist with a diagnosed severe personality disorder, who was described on his file as a "dangerous individual".
The cell sharing ended on 21 March, when Stewart battered his Asian cellmate to death with a table leg as he slept. Mubarek died on the morning he was due to return to his family.
The public inquiry into the death, which completed its first phase at the end of April, found that prison staff missed as many as 15 opportunities to prevent this course of events. The inquiry held few surprises in identifying the failings in the system that exposed Mubarek to the attack: understaffing, a neglect of inmates' mental health needs, and an inadequate system of sharing information on prisoners.
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