Jamal Mahmoud’s fiancee received card from him after his death describing his unconditional love for her and their son
Alexandra Topping
Friday, October 21, 2016
Jamal Mahmoud died after being stabbed at Pentonville prison on Tuesday. Photograph: Melissa Modeste/GoFundMe
A 21-year-old Pentonville inmate who was stabbed to death on Tuesday had just sent his fiancee a heartfelt card telling her he wanted to become “a better man and father”.
Jamal Mahmoud, who had a 10-month-old son with his fiancee, died after being stabbed in an attack on Tuesday while two other inmates, aged 21 and 30, were taken to a hospital in east London, where they remain in a critical condition. Two prisoners, aged 34 and 26, have been arrested on suspicion of murder.
I have just received the most heart breaking card from my lovely Jamal this morning. Words will never describe how myself and his family is feeling/ Forever loved, forever in our hearts
It was reported on Thursday that Mahmoud was stabbed with a “hunting style” knife, before being thrown off a nine-metre-high (30ft) landing.
His fiancee, Melissa Modeste, posted pictures of a card on Facebook which said “Missing You” on the front. She said the card had arrived on Thursday, two days after her partner was killed.
“I have just received the most heart breaking card from my lovely Jamal this morning. Words will never describe how myself and his family is feeling. Forever loved, forever in our hearts,” she wrote.
Inside the card Mahmoud had written that he had “unconditional love” for her and their son, adding “without you I don’t think I couldn’t have come this far. You make everything easy for me every single day.”
He wrote: “You are a strong minded individual person and I’m proud to say that my son has the best mother in the world. You have grown to become a mature woman and I hope I can make you proud by becoming a better man and father to both of you. Love you Baby.”
Opposite the message he had drawn a childlike picture of a detached house, with a smiling sun. In front were simple drawings of the three of them together.
In an emotional previous post Modeste wrote: “Sleep tight my darling Jamal. I miss you, I love you, forever and always.”
She added: “I miss the amazing head rubs, I miss giving you back rubs, I miss us always going Nandos, I miss sharing a bed with you, I miss waking up to you, I miss the morning kisses … I miss us talking about having another baby in the future, I miss us planning to get our marriage registered, I miss going for walks with you, I miss holding your hand. I miss you.”
The family of Mahmoud, who was of Somali descent, have called for Pentonville to be shut down.
Aisha Salah, Mahmoud’s cousin, told the BBC: “I blame the prison. It’s very disturbing. I just hope that place gets shut down as soon as possible because it’s not safe.”
In the wake of the attack, about half of the 200 prison officers at the jail passed a vote of no confidence in its governor, Kevin Reilly.
The officers claim they are unable to prevent the influx of weapons and drugs being thrown over the prison walls while also monitoring prisoners, BBC London reported.
It is understood that they have insisted on talks with the deputy governor about reducing the number of inmates allowed in the yard at the same time and increasing the number of staff on prison landings.
John Attard, from the Prison Governors Association, said the death had come as “no massive surprise” and added that the PGA had called for a public inquiry a week earlier.
Speaking outside the prison gates following the attack, Attard said: “The reduction in staffing is a key factor, there’s no doubt about that, but synthetic drugs also had some part in that. What we would like to see is a regime that can be managed safely with the right number of staff.”
Mahmoud was jailed for six and a half years in July as one of two gang members sentenced after hiding a loaded Skorpion machine gun and ammunition in a garden in Enfield, north London, the previous July. He was already serving five and a half years in prison for a separate robbery.
Following his killing his sister, Souzan Mahmoud, said: “You think your brother is in safe hands, you know, and to hear that he had to die that way, alone, where we thought he would be safe, it really hurts us. Everyone is in pieces, as you can see.”
Speaking to ITV News, she said: “The case ended a long time ago. Why was he still there [at Pentonville]? He should have been shipped out a long time ago.
“We just thought the guards would be there … I blame the prison more than the actual person that’s done it. They owed him a duty of care and they just neglected him. [My mother]’s worried about my other brother, who is also in prison.”
Their mother, Hawa Mahmoud, added: “I miss him so much. I can’t ever forget, never ever, my son.”
Danny Rynne, a scaffolder from Enfield, described Mahmoud as “lovely” and “placid”.
He said: “It’s a shame what happened. I don’t know too much about what it’s about but it’s a shock to everyone. He’s a small fella and proper placid. He wouldn’t say boo to no one unless somebody started on him.”
HMP Pentonville is a category B Victorian prison that opened in 1842 and holds more than 1,200 men. An inspection report on the jail published last year revealed that “most prisoners felt unsafe”, while “levels of violence were much higher than in similar prisons and had almost doubled since the last inspection”.
Official figures show there were more than 20,000 assaults in prisons – 2,813 of them deemed “serious” – in the 12 months to December, a rise of 27% year on year, with nearly 5,000 attacks on staff – a jump of more than a third compared with 2014.
The data also showed there were six apparent killings in the year to March 2016, up from four in the same period in 2015 and the largest number for a year to March since current records started in 2000.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The secretary of state has been clear that safety in prisons is fundamental to the proper functioning of our justice system and a vital part of our reform plans.
“We are fully committed to addressing the significant increase in violence, self-harm and self-inflicted deaths in our prisons.”
The spokesperson added that £14m worth of investment had been announced for the UK’s 10 worst prisons, which would increase staffing levels by 400.