Allegations that prison officers set up gladiator-style fights between black and white inmates may have been invented, a public inquiry into the murder of an Asian youth by his white racist cellmate heard yesterday.

The inquiry into the killing of Zahid Mubarek, who was bludgeoned to death at Feltham young offenders institution in March 2000, was told there was no evidence, nor even any current claims, that the practice ever happened at the jail.