Nurse failed to reveal she suspected Stewart was capable of murder

A prison nurse has said she thought Zahid Mubarek’s
murderer was capable of killing someone but did not say so for fear
of labelling him, writes Mithran
Samuel.

Lindsey Martin, a nurse at Hindley Young Offender Institution,
told the Mubarek Inquiry that Robert Stewart was a danger to
himself and others at the prison. He was transferred from Hindley
to Feltham YOI in 2000, shortly before murdering Mubarek.

She said he developed a destructive relationship with fellow
prisoner Maurice Travis, who was convicted of killing an inmate at
Stoke Heath YOI in 1998.

However, in filing a security report about them, she omitted her
gut feeling that the two were capable of killing.

She said: “I thought that if…you say they are
capable of stabbing or hurting someone, you are just labelling
them…and that would stay with them right through the
system.”

Martin said she suspected Stewart had mental health problems and
expected him to be referred for a psychiatric assessment on the
basis of her report, but this did not happen.

However, the inquiry was given a different picture by Dr Anthony
Greenwood, former senior medical officer at Hindley, who said
Stewart’s behaviour did not suggest mental illness because he
had “full insight into his activities and
behaviour”.