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A prisoner who shared a cell with a man killed at the Surrey pretrial centre has been charged with second degree murder.

The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said Wednesday that Jordan Cole Burt, 22, has been charged in the death of 25-year-old John Michael Murphy, who was involved in a violent incident with Burt on the evening of August 3.

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Murphy, who was in the segregation unit at Surrey Pretrial, was taken to hospital with serious injuries, but died the next morning.

IHIT said that Murphy and Burt were not acquainted before sharing a cell while awaiting court appearances on unrelated matters.

Dean Purdy, of the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union, said recently that prisoner-on-prisoner attacks were up 42 per cent in 2015 over 2014, and that the increasing number of gangster inmates has made the institutions particularly volatile.

There have been several similar deaths in B.C. jails this year, as well as suicides and fatal overdoses.

bmorton@postmedia.com