News

Allegations that Zahid Mubarek was placed in a cell with his killer Robert Stewart as part of a gladiator-style game were dismissed as a "malicious" smear campaign last week.

Prison Officers' Association branch chair at Feltham Nigel Herring, who allegedly instigated the practice, told the inquiry into Mubarek's death the allegations were "a fairy tale".

Herring said "rumours" of the game had surfaced during a period of "bad feeling" between the Feltham POA and the POA National Executive Committee last year.

He described the allegations as "a malicious act to cause trouble".

Herring's denial came after Duncan Keys, the assistant general secretary of the POA, named Herring on the basis of information he had allegedly received from an NEC member.

The inquiry heard that Keys anonymously telephoned the Commission for Racial Equality in May 2004 saying Mubarek was placed in a cell with a known racist "for other people's perverted pleasure".

But the Metropolitan Police found no evidence to back up the allegations following an investigation last year, and Keys admitted he had no direct proof.

In his statement given to the police investigation, Herring said: "I think it was... an attempt to attack me or this branch [Feltham POA]."

No more witnesses are expected to be called on the gladiator game allegations.

The inquiry continues.