A prisoner has been arrested and bailed after another prisoner was stabbed to death at Coldingley Prison.

Madala Washington, 25, of Abbey Parade, Wimbledon, was stabbed during lunchtime on Friday, April 1.

He was pronounced dead an hour later at the prison in Bisley, Surrey, despite efforts from London Air Ambulance doctors to save his life.

A 23-year-old inmate at the prison was arrested on suspicion of murder, and has been bailed until Monday, June 2.

A spokesman for Surrey Police said on Sunday, April 3: “Officers from the Surrey and Sussex major crime team are making a number of enquiries to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident and are working with HM Prison Service and the Ministry of Justice.”

The prison service said an investigation would be carried out by the independent Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.

Washington was convicted of conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin in 2013, after he was arrested during Metropolitan Police dawn raids against drug dealers.

Coldingley is a category C training prison, meaning inmates are considered unlikely to make a determined escape attempt but cannot be trusted in open conditions.

It has capacity for around 500 prisoners in five wings, where inmates are mainly housed in single cells, and is focused on the " resettlement of prisoners" .

In 2015 Coldingley's independent monitoring board wrote to prisons minister Andrew Selous over its concerns about the jail.

Its report blamed an increase in home-made weapons at the prison and illegal drugs on cuts to the number of prison officers and staff.