Prison officers failed to record risk posed by Stewart

Prison officers failed to record the risks posed by Zahid
Mubarek’s killer Robert Stewart as he was transferred between
prisons, an inquiry heard today, writes Maria
Ahmed.

The public inquiry into Mubarek’s death at Feltham Young
Offender Institution heard that nine separate prisoner escort
records were “defective” when Stewart was transferred
from Hindley YOI to other establishments prior to the murder.

Dexter Dias, counsel for the Mubarek family, said that the
records showed no assessment of the “vulnerabilities and
risks” posed by Stewart, including threatened suicide and
self-harm, even though his behaviour was “well-known”
at Hindley.

Stewart went on to kill Mubarek –his cellmate – at Feltham
in March 2000 after being transferred from Hindley in January the
same year.

The prisoner escort records were introduced in 1999 to highlight
potential risks any inmates might pose when they were transferred
from one establishment to another, the inquiry heard.

Giving evidence to the inquiry, Harold Dunne, the then principal
officer at Hindley agreed with Dias that the failure to fill in the
records properly was an “important and serious
oversight”.

Dias pointed out that the medical section of the escort record
for Stewart’s transfer from Hindley to Feltham in January
2000 had not been filled in at Hindley.

He asked Dunne:”Would you agree if that is what has
happened, that is a serious breach of prison service
instructions?”

Dunne replied: “It is a breach of those instructions,
yes”.

The inquiry continues.