A jury returned a verdict of suicide on one of two prisoners found hanged in their cells on the same morning at Winchester Prison.

John Rixon (57), of Mill Lane, Waterlooville, had been awaiting trial on charges of attempted murder and rape.

He was found hanging by a bedsheet from the window bars of the remand wing cell on Monday, June 18th.

His daughter, Leanne (23), told the Winchester hearing that, on her visits, she had found him "delirious and down".

But she had seen him the day and he had given her no particular cause for concern.

A prisoner named John told the inquest he was a "listener" who had befriended Mr Rixon.

He said he had told him two days before he died that he was "not too good in a single cell" and so he had asked an officer to arrange for him to be put in a shared cell.

Anya Farmborough, nurse manager of the prison's healthcare centre, said Mr Rixon had been very concerned at the nature of the charges against him and about coming into contact with drugs and drugs misusers.

Central Hampshire coroner, Grahame Short, said: "I suggest Mr Rixon was in emotional turmoil. While not suffering clinical depression, according to the medical evidence, he was low in mood.

"That was not surprising since he had lost his marriage, lost his liberty and faced a trial in the near future."

The other prisoner found dead the same day was 29-year-old Leslie Pepall, of Gosport, who had been serving life for killing his four-year-old son.

His suicide, confirmed by an inquest jury a few weeks ago, was the 20th at the prison in the last 10 years.

It followed the introduction last year of new measures to prevent such tragedies.