CARDIFF Prison has been praised for making significant changes to help mentally disturbed prisoners but they came too late for a Newport man brutally killed in his cell.

Colin Bloomfield, 35, from Newport, was strangled and mutilated with a plastic knife by cell mate Jason Ricketts, 29, from Caerphilly on April 2, 2000 after being "told to do it by voices".

Mr Bloomfield, serving six months for an offence which cannot be published for legal reasons, had been sharing a cell with Ricketts in a unit for vulnerable prisoners - after being placed there for his own safety after receiving a vicious beating just four days earlier.

Ricketts pleaded guilty at Newport crown court in February to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He was sentenced to be detained at Ashworth High Security Hospital, Liverpool for an unlimited time. Mr Bloomfield's mother Eileen called for the governor to resign after hearing details in court of her son's death. But Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons said in the report, carried out between February 27 and March 1, 2001: "There had been significant changes in helping the mentally disturbed in the prison. "Links with the National Health Service were firmly established. "The need for a mental health worker as liaison between the community and the establishment had been identified and this should be considered." However, no reference was made in the report to Mr Bloomfield's horrific killing.

Prison governor John Thomas-Ferrand said: "That matter was dealt with by the coroner and the court last year."

He said that many prisoners were "unknown factors at any one time". John May, operational manager for prisons in Wales, said: "We will try the best we can to eliminate the risk of this happening again and the issue of cell-sharing can be a difficult one."

The report called for: *The introduction of an assessment of the risks of cell-sharing. *First night support for new prisoners. * Ensuring that staff regularly reach out to prisoners. *Transfer time for those needing NHS facilities to be significantly shortened. *The post of a mental health worker as liaison between the community and the establishment to be considered.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "The prison should be congratulated in obtaining a positive report particularly given the crisis it faces with severe overcrowding."

She believes that people "with mental health problems simply should not be held in prison conditions."

Although the prison has "done quite a bit to improve conditions it could do a bit more." She added: "Cardiff is the sixth most overcrowded prison in England and Wales and is overpopulated by 52 per cent."

It accommodates about 600 prisoners including 40 asylum seekers, has seen five suicides in the last two years.