Paris Hilton have you heard of Shahid Aziz?
She may be free now, released back to her luxurious paradise away from incarceration but she still won't be able to meet Shahid Aziz. Shahid was killed three years ago by his cellmate, Peter McCann, even though staff had been warned McCAnn was dangerous.
Do you know how they satisfied themselves of McCann's danger or lack of?
They asked him.
Yeah. They asked him.
He said No, he wasn't.
So they put him in a cell with Shahid and within hours McCann had slit Shahid's throat with a razor blade mounted on a plastic toothbrush, then strangled him with shoelaces and battered him over the head with a chair to "finish him off".
The prison had been at the receiving end of racism allegations; the Asian inmates had protested in the past and they were led by one Shahid Aziz.
Shahid had complained to a race-relations officer asking to speak with one and her response was, 'You are looking at one. Go away, not interested.'
The day before his death a probation officer warned prison staff McCann was so dangerous he was a risk to inmates. They did nothing with the information.
After Shahid's death, they took their time informing his family. The family has not yet had an apology.
Were they racist? Negligent?
Let's ask McCann.
Reader Comments (5)
4 years later, Shahid, aged 30 was killed by McCann at Leeds prison. He had complained of abuse in the weeks before his death and claimed prison staff had taunted him with promises he would not leave the jail alive. He and other Muslim prisoners put together a petition against racism. On the day before his death Shahid had given a statement to police to support a white prisoner who claimed he had been assaulted by prison staff. A probabtion officer notified the prison of her concerns regarding McCann the very same day. That mattered not, the next day they placed him in a cell with McCann. I'm gathering info; the inquest took place last month; recommendations, nobody held responsible. Lots of claims of racism against this particular prison in the last few years.