Zahid Mubarek: Murdered night before his release

Prison officer Deborah Hogg said Robert Stewart was thought dangerous before being placed with Zahid Mubarek.

Stewart was originally in a single cell after arriving at Feltham Young Offenders Institution in January 2000.

Ms Hogg said Stewart had confronted black inmates shortly after his transfer to the prison.

Stewart, now serving a life sentence for the March 2000 murder, was at Feltham Young Offenders' Institution awaiting trial for sending harassing mail to a London woman.

He battered Zahid Mubarek to death with a broken table leg hours before the Asian teenager's scheduled release. Following the murder, police uncovered scores of racist letters from Stewart to friends.

Ms Hogg, who had just returned to work after being taken hostage in an unrelated incident, said Stewart stood out as someone who was not normal.

Racist letter

On 12 January 2000 she intercepted a letter from Stewart to a friend which used threatening and racist language, she told the hearing.

STEWART'S BEHAVIOUR I believe he had stated he knew what he would like to do - it is how you perceive what he had written. There was the terminology in there that I perceived to be racist Deborah Hogg

Saying she still "lacked confidence" following the hostage taking, she sought advice from a colleague.

Fellow officer Steven Martindale told her the letter was not acceptable and should be handed back.

Ms Hogg told Stewart to rewrite it saying both the tone and language was banned. It is thought he later sent it out after briefly moving to another institution.

Nigel Giffin QC, counsel for the inquiry, asked Ms Hogg why she thought the letter had been racist and threatening.

"I believe he had stated he knew what he would like to do. It is how you perceive what he had written. There was the terminology in there that I perceived to be racist. I perceived it to be threatening in relation to racism," she said.

"So far as you could see, the two were linked in the letter?" asked Mr Giffin.

"I believe they were, yes," she said.

"Do you think the reference was to 'Pakis' as well as 'niggers'?" asked Mr Giffin?

"I think there was a reference using that, yes," said Ms Hogg.

Ms Hogg said she chose to vet Stewart's mail after concerns among prison officers that the inmate could be a violent racist.

That suspicion had emerged immediately after Stewart's arrival at Feltham because he had some form of potentially racist confrontation with black inmates running the breakfast servery.

"I presume it was more what [other officers] saw of him, the way he carried himself on the unit," she said.

"It did not seem normal to myself for an individual to walk around with RIP tattooed on his forehead so that gave me cause for concern alone."

Institutional confusion

But despite concerns over Stewart's nature, Ms Hogg said she was personally unclear about procedures to record racist incidents.

STEWART'S MOVEMENTS 10 Jan: Sent to Feltham 12 Jan: Letter stopped, back to Hindley 24 Jan: Back to Feltham again 26 Jan: Back to Hindley again 7 Feb: Back to Feltham 8 Feb: Sharing cell with Zahid 20 Mar: Attacks Zahid

The inquiry heard Feltham had been so understaffed and was dealing with such large numbers of prisoner changes that it was extremely difficult for officers to follow the precise rules.

Adding to these problems, paperwork on the background of each prisoner was neither coherent or guaranteed to travel with a convict transferred between institutions.

Ms Hogg said she had not personally known of a special book for recording stopped letters or of updated "governor orders" on racist incidents.

"At the time, [an order] would just arrive - it would just end up on the desk and staff would pick it up and have a look at it, it would get moved around the office.

"In those days, the staff was so low and we were always so busy that paperwork was something that was not always at the forefront. We had to deal with prisoners and their needs."

The inquiry continues.