RE: THE ZAHID MUBAREK INQUIRY WITNESS STATEMENT OF ...

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31. In relation to passing information about a prisoner up and down themanagerial line there was a great deal of verbal exchanges of information bothwithin and across the wings. Written comments were kept in various forms bothon the wing, e.g. flimsies, Observation Book, Occurrence Book and morecentrally e.g. the Security File in the Security Unit. All these were available to staffat all levels and to both the officer and governor grades.Zahid Mubarek'smurder32. I had no involvement with the events that took place during the course of thenight of 20/21 March 2000.I subsequently was interviewed by the police and attach a copy of my police statementof 11 May 2000 (WB 285-287). I was also interviewed twice during the ButtInvestigation and attach a record of those interviews (WB 288-295)33. I was also interviewed on 18 April 2001during the course of the Commission forRacial Equality's Formal Investigation. I attach to this statement a copy of thetranscript of that interview (WB 296-310). I refer below to my dealings with theCRE but in particular at this point would say that the transcript was sent to me foragreement a year after the interview took place. Although I signed the"Certificate of Truth" sent with the transcript I feel it is incomplete. At one pointduring the interview I was concerned that it was, in fact, becoming aninterrogation and raised the question of whether or not I should have a lawyer orsomeone else present on my behalf. I was persuaded that this was notnecessary but this exchange was not recorded or transcribed.34. In January 2003 the CRE sent me a copy of an extract from their draft Reportwhere my involvement with Stewart was detailed. I was concerned withinconsistencies and errors in what I had been sent. It appeared that they hadtaken passages from my various interviews, put them together and then quotedor referred to them out of context.35. Letters were written on my behalf to the CRE pointing out the mistakes and the8 -928-
inconsistencies but unfortunately the published Report still contains errors andspeculation. In particular the Report connects the letter stopping incident and myvisit to read Stewart's file as if one led to the other. These were separateunconnected events, both actioned but in different ways.Attacks by one prisoner on another36. Assaults of various degrees of seriousness between prisoners are almost a dailyoccurrence in any prison. Occasionally they can be very serious but, for the mostpart, they amount to little or no physical violence. Attacks by one cellmate onanother are, in my experience, very rare. I can recall no other incident all the timeI was at Feltham. Cell-sharing or extended confinement does not seem to be afeature of increased violence, which is something that occurs when prisoners areintermingling rather than when separated in their cells. However, lack of activitycan have an affect on behaviour. If I were aware of any tension betweencellmates I would move one of them, to prevent any trouble before it started.37. In relation to Feltham any tension there was between prisoners occasionallyleading to physical confrontation arose from members of various gangs beingincarcerated together. Sometimes the gang disputes that took place outside theprison would be reflected in something similar inside. In relation to acts ofviolence Feltham was not a great deal different to anywhere else I have served.Race Relations38. I would not have said that there was any particular tension or conflict betweenprisoners of different ethnic origin at Feltham. In fact there was a good deal ofmixing of various groups throughout the day. To a certain extent the prisonpopulation and attitudes at Feltham reflected the outside world where, in Londonparticularly, young people are now used to a multi-cultural society experienced inschools and from sporting or social events.39. The membership of the gangs I mention above in paragraph 38 was oftenrestricted to a particular group. However, any incidents of violence would tend tobe individuals of one white gang against another white gang and likewise for9 -929-
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RE: THE ZAHID MUBAREK INQUIRY WITNESS STATEMENT OF ...

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