A BARROW prisoner found hanged in his cell had complained of threats and bullying from other inmates in the weeks leading up to his death. 

Richard Scott Green, 23, died on May 9 last year hours after being found in his cell at category C prison HMP Haverigg, near Millom. 

An inquest into the death of Green, of Broad Close, Barrow, heard on Tuesday that fellow prisoners had been doubling the amount of debt owed from a tobacco loan every day it remained unpaid. 

His mother, Muriel Green, told the hearing at Kendal’s County Hall, that her ‘hard work but loving’ son had claimed his “time was running out” during telephone calls to the family home. 

Mother of four, Mrs Green, of Thames Road, Walney, said: “He told us about bullying and about the debt. 

“He said he would rather just have a fight but it was all the innuendos and threats. 

"He said his time was running out.” 

Former Walney School pupil Green, an insulin dependent diabetic, was jailed just weeks before his daughter was born in December 2013. 

He had been six months into a 48 month sentence for burglary when he died. 

The court heard he had failed to answer a roll call at 8.15pm on the evening he was found with prison guards entering his cell at 9.25pm where he was found hanging and unresponsive. 

HMP Haverigg grade governor Monica Brown explained the modern en-suite cell 30 in the Langdale Unit where Green was housed ‘did not necessarily lend itself to good observation’ for staff. 

The inquest was also told Green had also been refused a family day visit because a wrongful accusation that he had secreted a screwdriver in his cell had not yet been wiped from his file. 

Claire Palmer, who had planned to marry her fiance in the jail last summer, said the news had left him devastated because he had wanted to have some photographs taken with his five-month-old daughter, Lacie-Mai. 

“He couldn’t wait to be a dad,” she said. 

"He was so excited. The family day was the only time he could have moved around with his baby, played with his baby and had photographs with her while she was still a baby. 

“He called me on the Wednesday, a few days before he died, which was unusual," Miss Palmer added. 

“He was tearful and said ‘you do know I love you, don't you?’.” 

The inquest, which is set to take evidence from 49 witnesses over the next nine days, continues today.