Salim Mehajer was ‘very lonely’ and very messy says alleged jewellery thief who shared his cell

THE man who shared a cell with Salim Mehajer for four days last week has opened up about his experience living alongside a ‘very lonely’ and ‘messy’ cellmate who was keen to chat at the Surry Hills police station.

Alex Arnold shared a cell with Salim Mehajer at Surry Hills Police Station. Picture: Ryan Osland

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AN alleged jewellery thief has opened up about his experience sharing a cell with disgraced businessman Salim Mejaher last week.

Alex Arnold, 40, was arrested over an alleged break and enter of a Kings Cross jewellery store before he ended up in a cell with the former Auburn deputy mayor at the Surry Hills police station over four days.

He spoke to The Australian about their chats and even the back massages he claims they swapped.

Former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer is currently on remand. Picture: AAP

“A senior Corrective Services officer said, ‘Do you want to share with Salim over there’,” Arnold said.

“I said, ‘I’d rather not’. But then I thought this guy might be some good conversation.

Mr Arnold said the guard told him Mr Mehajer had been in the cell under special protection and both men had signed forms agreeing to share the cell.

“He was really, really lonely,” Mr Arnold said of Mehajer.

Salim Mehajer, left, was arrested in relation to a crash in Lidcombe last year.

Arnold said that his cellmate was keen to chat but he kept a messy cell and had a habit of getting around half naked. “He was lying around in just a towel with no underwear,” he said. “Like one of those Egyptians.”

He said that the toilet area stunk of urine and faeces but Mehajer did not help him clean it up.

Mehajer is fighting charges of perverting the course of justice and conspiracy to cheat and defraud in relation to a car crash last year.