Zahid Mubarek: Asked for cell transfer

A senior Feltham officer said before the murder of Zahid Mubarek staff had thought the policy would stop clashes.

But Keith Greenslade said officers had a "naive" view of racism at the west London young offenders' institution.

And he added an officer could have deliberately housed a racist with a black or Asian prisoner.

Robert Stewart, now 24, battered cellmate Zahid Mubarek with a table leg hours before the Asian teenager was due to be released in March 2000.

Stewart, serving a life sentence for the killing, has recently admitted his attack was racially motivated. The dead teenager's family say he had asked for a cell transfer in the weeks before he was attacked.

'Incidents under-reported'

Appearing before the public inquiry into the murder, Mr Greenslade said he believed that racist incidents at Feltham went under-reported.

SEPARATION POLICIES As far as cell allocation was concerned, my experience was that officers would try and avoid mixing people from different races Keith Greenslade

Mr Justice Keith, chairman of the inquiry, asked Mr Greenslade why he thought this was the case.

"Lack of staff training, lack of staff understanding, naivety from staff," replied the officer, who also acted as a deputy governor.

Although Mr Greenslade believed there was no major problem with racism in the prison, he told the inquiry that officers had not kept basic race relations records up to date at the time of the killing because they did not have time to complete the paperwork.

This ignorance about race issues also influenced how prisoners were accommodated, he said.

"As far as cell allocation was concerned, my experience was that officers, when allocating cells, would try and avoid mixing people from different races," he told the inquiry.

"I do not believe that this was a laid-down policy, but it was something that happened in Feltham."

Inmate requests

Mr Greenslade said staff believed it made their lives easier - although separations were neither forced nor formal. Sometimes a transfer followed a request from an inmate, he said.

Robert Stewart: Racist letter intercepted

Zahid Mubarek's family and prison friend Jamie Barnes maintain the teenager had asked for a cell transfer because he was scared of Stewart, but nothing was done.

In his own statement to the inquiry, Robert Stewart supported this claim, saying he was present when Zahid asked to share a cell with Barnes.

Bobby Cummines, an adviser to the inquiry, asked Mr Greenslade whether the informal separation policy could have been open to abuse.

"Could [the policy] not be used in reverse?" he asked. "If a racist prison officer wanted to put a racist in a cell with a black person - is there a possibility, that that could happen?"

"It is a possibility, yes," replied Mr Greenslade.

Weeks before the killing, prison officers intercepted a racist letter from Robert Stewart, although the incident was not recorded in the files. It is thought the letter included references to "Pakis".

Following the killing, Robert Stewart was found to have written scores of racist letters to friends inside prison.