A MUM whose teenage daughter died after taking an overdose at Styal Prison led a protest to mark the most recent death there.

Pauline Campbell's 18-year-old daughter Sarah took an overdose of prescription drugs at the women's jail in 2003.

Since then she has campaigned for a change in sentencing policy and improvements in conditions at Styal and other women's prisons across the country.

Ms Campbell has now led a protest outside the prison gates to mark the most recent death at the Cheshire jail - the 70th death of a British woman prisoner since 1998.

Helen Cole, 48, was found hanging in her cell on June 3.

She had been charged with murdering her son Andrew, 19, at the family home in Thornton, near Blackpool, last month.

He was found dead in bed with a single stab wound.

Ms Campbell, of Malpas, Cheshire, who has taken part in similar vigils at women's prisons across the country, said: "Helen Cole's tragic death is another reminder that women are being detained in prisons that cannot meet their human needs.

"There has been a failure to learn lessons. Helen was owed a legal duty of care. The needless imprisonment of many women offenders, and the state's culpability in the ill-treatment of vulnerable people held in its care and custody, is abhorrent and must stop."

Earlier this year, a report commissioned for the Home Office and backed by Baroness Corston said large women's jails should be closed as part of a reform programme.