Pentonville: Man charged with murder after prisoner stabbed to death

Investigation: Jamal Mahmoud died from a stab wound
Tom Powell21 October 2016
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A man has been charged with murder after an inmate at Pentonville prison was stabbed to death.

Jamal Mahmoud, 21, who had just become a father, died in the attack on October 18 and two others were critically injured.

Basana Kimbembi, 34, was today charged with murder and will be produced from prison to appear at court at a later date.

A second man was also arrested on suspicion of murder but has now been released from police custody and returned to prison.

Melissa Modeste and her fiancée Jamal Mahmoud, who was killed

Enquiries by the Homicide and Major Crime Command continue while the two other injured men – aged 21 and 30 – remain in hospital. Their injuries are not life-threatening.

A post-mortem examination at Whittington Hospital yesterday revealed the cause of death as a stab wound.

Mahmoud was jailed for six years and six months in July for hiding a loaded Skorpion machine gun and ammunition in a garden in Enfield. He was already serving five-and-a-half years in prison for a separate robbery.

His family have hit out at the north London prison for "neglecting him".

Speaking on behalf of her mother Hawa, his sister Souzan said: "For her to get a phone call that her son had died in prison is just devastating.

"I blame the prison more than the actual person that done it. They owed him a duty of care and they just neglected him.

The Prison Governors Association (PGA) claimed Government cuts to staff and resources meant the "tragedy" at the north London prison was "no massive surprise".

It follows a slew of warnings about safety behind bars, while Pentonville was last year singled out by former justice secretary Michael Gove as "the most dramatic example of failure" within the estate.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in