Prisoners cleared of murdering fellow inmate at Wormwood Scrubs

Two prisoners accused of murdering a fellow inmate at Wormwood Scrubs have been cleared by a jury.

Khader Saleh, 25, was stabbed to death with a makeshift knife in an alleged attempt to teach him a “lesson”, the Old Bailey previously heard.

Prosecutors alleged Kalifa Dibbassey, 21, and Enton Marku, 20, were involved in an attack on Saleh in his cell while trying to resolve a dispute on January 31.

The two men denied murder and a jury took just under three hours to deliver unanimous not guilty verdicts on Tuesday.

At the opening of the trial Oliver Glasgow QC alleged that Dibbassey had armed himself with a knife and escorted Saleh into his cell while Marku waited outside.

Mr Glasgow claimed Saleh was attacked and stabbed twice once the cell door was closed.

Afterwards, the defendants allegedly set off an alarm before climbing into a neighbouring cell and setting off an alarm there too.

They got away when a prison guard unlocked the cell door moments later, the Old Bailey was told.

Jurors heard Dibbassey had admitted the killing but had said he acted in self defence.

A third defendant, Ahmed Kayre, 22, who also denied a charge of murdering Mr Saleh, was acquitted on the direction of the judge Mr Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith part way through the trial on November 13.

Following the verdicts, the judge thanked the jury for its attention on a “tough job”, adding that their role was “incredibly necessary”.

Wormwood Scrubs has an operational capacity of around 1,300 prisoners and at the time of Saleh’s death, there were 1,188 inmates.