23 Jan Coroner Concerned About The Risk of Future Deaths From Racist Violence in Prisons

The Assistant Coroner for Southwark has issued a lengthy Report to Prevent Future Deaths following the inquest into the murder of Sundeep Ghuman by his racist cell mate at Belmarsh prison in 2020.

36 year old Sundeep was in a triple cell inside Belmarsh prison when on 7 February 2020 two prisoners were moved from another wing to share with him. They were cousins and one of them,  Steven Hilden, was known to be racist. On 18 February 2020, while all 3 were locked in the cell Hilden assaulted Sundeep with a table leg causing unsurvivable head injuries. Sundeep was taken to the Royal London Hospital but died the following day.

Sundeep’s mother, our client,  embarked upon a long journey to seek justice and accountability for her. First through criminal proceedings, and then through the inquest.

The jury at the inquest into his death concluded that there were failings in the assessment of the risk presented by Hilden’s racism and that the relevant policy was not followed.

The Coroner has now issued a Regulation 28 Report to Prevent Future Deaths covering the following issues:

• The National Cell Share Risk Assessment Policy

The risk assessment policy, which was specifically introduced to protect against racist violence following the murder Zahid Mubarek in Feltham in 2000, was not being followed at Belmarsh or High Down (where Hilden was previously been). Both were instead operating their own different systems. This was not known by those with responsibility for the policy nationally, despite procedures to audit and monitor compliance with the policy.

Staff at Belmarsh emphasised the need to maximise occupancy by sharing cells and were not aware that the guiding principle of the policy was one of caution. This led to people sharing cells when they should not.

In his report, the coroner stated this demonstrated a “a systemic failing of training and operational understanding, and a disconnect between those responsible for creating and maintaining the policy and those who take operational decisions within the prisons”.

• NOMIS Alerts – a marker placed on a digital file

Alerts on a prisoner’s electronic prison file (known as NOMIS) were another measure introduced in response to Zahid’s murder.

The Coroner found there was a lack of understanding and consistency on how an active alert for racism should be approached when assessing suitability of cell sharing.

An unstructured approach and lack of training has created a risk that an active alert may be inappropriately disregarded, leading to potentially fatal racist violence.

• Considering risks beyond the minimum required by the policy

The evidence given at the inquest was that the threshold for making someone High Risk to share a cell based on a history of violence was a very high one, as was the threshold for someone being regarded as vulnerable.

The view of those responsible for the policy is that it provides a baseline only and judgements should be made beyond this to minimise problems caused by cell sharing. By contrast, staff at Belmarsh considered cell moves to be a daily occurrence, governed only by the cell share risk assessment with no further consideration necessary or appropriate.

The Coroner found this gives rise to a risk that someone prone to violence will share a cell with someone who is at risk of violence. This risk is heightened if the other person has a level of vulnerability.

Additionally, despite Spice use being widespread and officers being well aware of the prisoners who use it in their cells this currently has no bearing on cell sharing suitability. Which means that, as the inquest heard, someone like Sundeep who was trying to stay away from Spice was placed in a cell with  known Spice users.

• A concern for prisoners at Belmarsh given the evidence of widespread violence and drug use in the prison.

The inquest heard about widespread levels of prisoner-on-prisoner violence and use of drugs, especially Spice at HMP Belmarsh. The evidence of staff was that this was unavoidable. However, this did not correspond with findings in adjudications or criminal proceedings. Hilden’s history included multiple instances of violence and racism which were recorded in intelligence reports and on NOMIS but many didn’t proceed to an adjudication suggesting staff do not consider that they can always take robust action and formal measures.

The Coroner expressed a concern that the Prison “may not currently be capable of providing a safe and secure environment for prisoners accommodated there, and that there is a risk of future deaths from drug use or violence”.

A reply from the Secretary of State for Justice and the Governor of HMP Belmarsh is due soon.

DPG’s Jo Eggleton has said

“It is deeply concerning that the very systems introduced following the racist murder of Zahid Mubarek in 2000, failed to protect Sundeep twenty-five years later. The similarities between the two cases are striking and troubling.”

The full report is available here: https://www.judiciary.uk/prevention-of-future-death-reports/sundeep-ghuman-prevention-of-future-deaths-report/

Further details of the inquest are available here: https://www.inquest.org.uk/sundeep-ghuman-jury-finds-serious-failings-by-belmarsh-prison-led-to-the-killing-of-sundeep-ghuman-by-his-racist-cellmate.

The Zahid Mubarek Trust was set up in the wake of Zahid’s brutal murder. More information about them is available on their website https://thezmt.org/ .

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