A DEEPLY disturbed teenager who hanged himself while locked up, waiting to be sentenced for rape, was failed by a string of experts, a damning report will reveal today.

Gareth Price, of Ferryhill, County Durham, never recovered from the shock of losing his older brother, Levi, who hanged himself in the garden of the family's home.

Gareth was found in his cell at a young offenders institution the day before he was due to be sentenced.

Today, an official inquiry will conclude that the 16-year-old was repeatedly failed by a system that was supposed to protect him.

The teenager was touched by several tragedies.

Months after his brother's suicide, his sister-in-law, Rose Ann, 20, died in a car accident.

Shortly after, in January 2003, Gareth was the driver of a stolen car that crashed in West Cornforth, killing 13-year-old passenger Liam Richardson, from Ferryhill.

He pleaded guilty to death by dangerous driving and aggravated vehicle taking, and was made the subject of an 18-month supervision order.

Then, during a holiday in the Liverpool area, he was arrested for raping a 17-year-old girl in Formby, Liverpool.

After pleading guilty, he was awaiting sentence at Lancaster Farms Young Offenders' Institution.

His parents, Sealuse and Karen, said he had never recovered from his brother's death, which sent him off the rails.

Today's report by Durham Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB), says lessons must be learned by all the organisations involved in safeguarding vulnerable young people in custody.

It calls for an urgent review into the use of prisons rather than secure accommodation in children's homes for young people awaiting trial or sentencing.

The board started a serious case review shortly after Gareth's death in February 2005 to find out if organisations and professionals working to protect young people from harm could learn from the tragedy.

The review, which could not be published until after a coroner's inquest ended last February, also considered inquiries by the Youth Justice Board and the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.

At the inquest, the Coroner for North Lancashire, Dr James Adeley, criticised several agencies involved in the teenager's care, including council youth offending services in Lancashire and County Durham, the prison service, his solicitor, and a visiting psychiatrist.

While they might not have saved his life, the professionals failed to share information about incidents of self harming in 2004 and a psychiatric report that described him as high risk of suicide.

LSCB chairwoman Gail Hopper said: "It is clear from the detailed inquiries undertaken that lessons can, and should, be learned by all of the agencies involved in safeguarding young people in custody.

"It's not possible to determine whether any of the actions which should have been taken would have prevented his death.

"We cannot determine the strength of his intention to kill himself, nor how deeply and irreversibly affected he was by the emotional traumas he had experienced.

"What is clear is that services missed opportunities to intervene, they did not work together to identify and share information about Gareth's vulnerability and this put him at greater risk."

All County Durham-based agencies involved in the case were told to draw up action plans to ensure the highest possible standard of service is provided to all young people in their care.

Mrs Hopper said that in the three years since Gareth's death, significant progress had been made with the action plans and their implementation was being monitored by the LSCB. She said: "Our report, if properly implemented, will improve the support and services for young people."

Mrs Hopper extended the board's condolences to the teenager's family.

Last night, Mrs Price said the family did not want to comment on the findings of the report. "We'll let him rest now," she said.