A Laindon woman has died after being found hanging from the window bars of her cell in Holloway Prison.

Cheryl Hartman, 20, was discovered by staff hanging at the north London women's prison at 10.35am on Sunday.

Staff and paramedics attempted to resuscitate her and she was rushed to Whittington Hospital in north London. Despite frantic efforts to revive her, she was pronounced dead at 11.40am.

A spokesman for the Prison Service said Cheryl was serving a nine-month sentence for affray and a five-month sentence for common assault to run concurrent.

She was sentenced at Harrow Crown Court on March 24 this year. She was then sent to the young offenders wing at Holloway Prison.

The spokesman added: "We will hold our own internal investigation along with the coroner's investigation."

Cheryl's death comes just days after the chief inspector of prisons, Sir David Ramsbotham, said ministerial inaction was costing lives in British prisons.

Record numbers of inmates committed suicide for the second year running in 1999, with the number taking their own lives rising from 82 to 91.

The total could reach triple figures for the first time this year, Sir David warned at the launch last Tuesday of his annual report on British jails.

A pilot project that drastically reduced suicides in US jails - promised by Home Secretary Jack Straw last year - has not materialised.

Under the US scheme a mental health nurse is on duty at every prison 24 hours a day, officers are trained to spot mental health problems and prisoners are employed as observers.

By Carl Eve

Reporter's e-mail: carl.eve@notes.newsquest.co.uk

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