Prisoner Mark Pollard bashed after being lured in by fellow inmates on the promise of having a puff of a cigarette

An inmate who died after a violent gang robbery at the maximum security Port Phillip Prison was targeted for his prized dragon ring and Adidas runners.

Mark Pollard was set upon in a ‘five onto one’ attack in Port Phillip Prison. Picture: David Caird

With a spring in his step, Mark Pollard walked into another inmate’s cell wearing his Adidas Aerobounce runners and his prized dragon ring.

He had been lured in there on the promise of having a puff of a cigarette with some fellow prisoners.

But six minutes later he emerged, grimacing and holding his left side – and, on his feet, were prison-issued black velcro sneakers.

His gold ring, which was in the shape of a dragon head with rubies for its eyes, was also nowhere to be seen.

Mark Pollard was robbed of his prized dragon ring.

He had been the victim of a violent jailhouse gang robbery.

What actually happened inside the four walls of cell 306 at Port Phillip Prison on February 20, 2020 is only known by Pollard and his attackers.

The five men – including Abdulkadir Ali, Kiuna Leveni, Justin Ibrahim and Salah Abukar – seen entering and exiting the cell have remained mute.

But Pollard, 48, in the hours after the onslaught told corrections officers, and medical staff, how he was ambushed.

“They were dirty dogs – five onto one,” he said.

Pollard said he had been “jumped by five other prisoners” who he described as being “African blokes”.

Pollard was jumped by five ‘dirty dogs’.

One of the brutes held his head down with his foot, he described, while the others began “laying into” him.

There were a flurry of kicks, punches and knees to his torso and head.

They had stuffed a sock in his mouth to dull his screams.

“I’ve probably got five broken ribs,” Pollard explained.

Before the cell door opened and he was allowed to leave at 5.50pm, Pollard was told to shake Ibrahim’s hand in full view of the cameras to make it look like they were having a friendly chat.

They didn’t want to raise any alarms with eagle-eyed corrections officers.

But when Pollard returned to his cell, his condition deteriorated quickly.

By 9.35pm, a nurse found him sitting upright in his cell with bruising to his head and struggling to breathe.

An ambulance was called, with attending paramedics noting Pollard had a fast heart rate, shallow breathing, a “deformed rib cavity” and a golf ball-sized lump on his head. 

He was taken to hospital where he died three days later.

Port Phillip prisoner Mark Pollard died after the attack.

Investigators trawled CCTV in a bid to trace Pollard’s last moments in prison.

They uncovered the robbery – also finding footage showing Ibrahim and Leveni later exchanging the ring, before Leveni offering it to another prisoner to try on.

All five men were initially charged with murder.

But magistrate Andrew McKenna last year said there was insufficient evidence to prove murder or manslaughter, and threw out the kill charge.

Despite sustaining broken ribs, a fractured sternum, and a punctured lung, the court heard it was a pre-existing bowel condition that had contributed to Pollard’s death.

Charges against one man were ultimately dropped.

But Ali, Leveni, Ibrahim and Abukar would go on to plead guilty to committing a robbery.

And they have all been punished with 12 months or less behind bars for their involvement.

In sentencing Ibrahim, 28, last month, Mr McKenna said he was part of an enterprise where “the assailants showed no mercy” towards Pollard.

“This was the law of the jungle,” Mr McKenna said.

“All of the accused were younger than Pollard, who was a thin man in poor health.

“He couldn’t put up any resistance. He had done nothing to aggravate anybody.

“It was five onto one – and all for his ring and his shoes.”