Timothy Warlow, 39, used his clothes and towels to make a dummy to fool prison officers checking on him at Exeter jail, an inquest was told.

Warlow, from Plymouth Road, Tavistock, Devon, was found on 14 June last year hanged from a noose made from a bed sheet and had left a suicide note, the inquest heard.

He was due to be sentenced the following day for two offences of possessing indecent photographs of children, charges he had admitted at an earlier hearing.

Not 'immediate risk'

The inquest, in Exeter on Wednesday, was told that Warlow was on a self-harm register at the prison.

But when he was checked by prison officer Paul Wright at 2340 BST on 13 June he said he was "OK" and did not need to be on the register.

His body was found the next morning by cellmate Christopher Law.

Mr Law told the hearing he had seen what he believed to be Mr Warlow asleep in his bed, before finding him moments later in the toilet recess of the cell.

Warlow had been seen as a high risk prisoner, but not as an immediate risk, said principal officer Richard Luscombe, in charge of the vulnerable prisoners' unit at the jail.

The support given him had been appropriate for his level of risk, he told the inquest.

Mr Luscombe said Warlow had told him he wanted to die, but not in prison, and felt "he had lost everything".

He had left a note indicating his intention to take his own life, the inquest was told.