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Concerns about “appalling” conditions at Feltham Young Offender Institution “fell on deaf ears” in the period leading up to the murder of Zahid Mubarek, an inquiry heard today, writes Maria Ahmed from the inquiry.

Lucy Bogue, the then chair of the Independent Monitoring Board, a prison watchdog, told the public inquiry into Mubarek’s death that former home secretaries Michael Howard and Jack Straw had repeatedly failed to respond.

Bogue said that the Home Office did not consider the problems to be “sufficiently serious” during the four years leading up to the killing.

The 19-year-old was murdered by his racist cell mate Robert Stewart, also 19, at Feltham YOI in March 2000.

Bogue told the inquiry that overcrowding had placed “significant” strain on Feltham, with some inmates forced to eat their meals “in close proximity” to toilet bowls in shared cells.

Bogue said assaults among prisoners had been a “growing phenomenon” along with “unacceptably” high levels of self harm. She told the inquiry “it is terrible that it took such tragedy and turmoil to bring about any real change”.