PRISON inspectors have issued a damning report on “major safety” failings threatening inmates at Belmarsh, where whistleblower Julian Assange is being held.

The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) at HMP Belmarsh condemned the growing influence of gangs, which are fuelling violence in the south-east London prison.

There are 120 gangs in the prison, contributing to a 50 per cent rise in attacks in the last year, the report found.

The report said: “There appear to have been increases in prisoner-on-prisoner and prisoner-on-staff assaults over the previous year,” with three deaths in custody including one apparent suicide.

Of the 500 assaults in the prison over the past year, 60 were found by inspectors to have been “serious,” the IMB said.

Inspectors also highlighted the “totally unacceptable practice of confining three men to cells designed for two” and the “appalling state” of showers and toilets despite an allocation of funds for improvements two years ago.

Mr Assange, an Australian journalist wanted in the United States for revealing US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq on his WikiLeaks website, is being kept in Belmarsh even though the period fixed for his detention has expired.

A campaign is being waged for his release, with protests already held outside the prison.

The IMB comprises people local to the prison and has access to all areas of the jail. Its remit is to ensure that inmates are treated fairly and humanely.

Belmarsh IMB chairwoman Andrea Gillespie said: “Maintaining a safe environment for prisoners and staff continues to be paramount. 

“We have particular concerns about the influence that gang members try to exert over fellow prisoners and recognise the difficult job the prison has to keep everyone safe.

“We are exasperated that once again we have to report on the delayed refurbishment of many of the showers and toilets, which are in an appalling state. 

“Yet again, we criticise the accommodation of three men in cells meant for two prisoners as totally unacceptable.”

The IMB report said it was a “disgrace that, despite a funding programme being available from 2017,” work to improve toilets and showers continues to be delayed. 

Ms Gillespie said: “These are just a few of the serious issues that the prison has to manage.“

Howard League for Penal Reform director of campaigns Andrew Neilson told the Star: “This is the latest in a long line of reports exposing the catastrophic impact of overcrowding in Belmarsh prison.

“When inspectors visited the prison last year, only one in six men surveyed said they could get a shower every day.

“Caging people in such squalid conditions is a recipe for violence, drug abuse and mental distress – and ultimately more crime.”

The US is seeking the extradition of Mr Assange to face spying charges. 

He was given asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for almost seven years, but Ecuador’s authorities handed him over to British police in April this year.

Mr Assange was sent to prison for breaking his original bail conditions and has been incarcerated in Belmarsh ever since.

He was due to be released on September 22, but was told at a court hearing that he would be kept in jail because there were “substantial grounds” to believe that he would abscond.

The 48-year-old appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court via video link from Belmarsh prison yesterday for a brief hearing.

He was told by deputy senior district judge Tan Ikram that he would remain in custody “for the same reasons as before.”

A final hearing on his possible extradition is due in February.