A TRIPLE murderer who was battered unconscious by fellow inmates has been told he can sue prison bosses for £100,000.

Michael Steele, was jailed for life in 1998, alongside Jack Whomes, for the shotgun murders of Basildon “Essex Boys” gang members Tony Tucker, Pat Tate and Craig Rolfe.

All three were found blasted to death in Workhouse Lane, Rettendon, in December, 1995.

Steele, 73, formerly of Great Bentley, was beaten with a steel pot in a kitchen after an argument over the use of a telephone at maximum security HMP Whitemoor, near Peterborough, in 2010.

He suffered a bad cut, damaged teeth and a fractured eye socket in the assault, said to have been carried out by a Muslim gang.

In his claim, Steele said he has been told by senior staff that Muslims in the prison are “impossible to control or discipline” due to their numbers.

In a hearing at Central London County Court, Ministry of Justice lawyers tried to “strike out” Steele’s claim, but the case will go ahead after District Judge Ian Avent said it is arguable.

He said: “Mr Steele’s claim is predicated on the basis that Muslim prisoners were a violent threat and that the prison was the most volatile of the high security dispersal prisons.”

The court heard Steele had rowed with a Muslim prisoner – referred to only as Miller – after being accused of jumping the queue to use a telephone.

The following day he was in a kitchen cooking his dinner when he was hit on the head from behind with what is believed to have been a metal pot.

In his evidence, he said: “At the same instance, the prisoner Miller sprang forward, striking me to the left side of my face.

“That further assisted my inevitable fall to the ground, where Miller and possibly one other kicked me unconscious.”

Steele claims prison bosses should have done more to protect him from the attack.

The MoJ argued the claim had no chance of succeeding and staff had no reason to suspect Steele was at risk of an attack.

But Judge Avent said: “They would also have known that the kitchens would have contained any number of potentially deadly instruments.

“If there was going to be a confrontation or an assault, it seems to me that it was more likely than not to be in an area which was not covered by CCTV.

“This obviously would include the kitchen areas, especially at meal times when prisoners would congregate and one would assume therefore that any risk, or the likelihood of a flashpoint, would increase.”

He added: “The point is that it is certainly arguable that there has to be a minimum level, or standard, of care which has to be put in place by the prison authorities.”

Steele and Whomes have always maintained their innocence but lost an appeal in 2006 and in January this year lost a third attempt to challenge a decision not to review the case.