A PRISONER found hanged in her cell showed extensive levels of self-harm, an inquest heard yesterday.

Scarring on the body of Jayne Buck indicated repeated self-harm in the past, said Home Office pathologist Dr James Sunter.

He told the inquest: "She had an incredibly large number of scars, ranging from scratches to lesions, which must have been very deep cuts, just about everywhere on her body.

"There must have been hundreds, possibly even thousands.

"Quite a lot of individuals self-mutilate, but this was an astonishing example of this."

The 28-year-old, from Beverley, East Yorkshire, died in May last year in the women's unit at Durham Prison, where she had been serving a life sentence for an arson attack in 1999, in which she set fire to a bed at a hostel.

The hearing, before County Durham Coroner Andrew Tweddle at Chester-le-Street Magistrates' Court, was told that Ms Buck suffered from a condition known as borderline personality disorder and had a history of self harm dating from the age of 11.

Probation officer Jean Hodgson told the inquest jury that for the first three months after she was sent to Durham, the deceased did not speak a word, and on one occasion, covered herself in cuts.

Although she had made significant progress in recent years and had become a popular figure on the wing, Ms Buck was regularly deemed to require monitoring in case of self-harm.

Prison psychologist Jennifer Tomlinson told the inquest Ms Buck had withdrawn herself from intensive therapy sessions in the months before her death.

She also said that in tests, Ms Buck was shown to have a considerably lower than average IQ. She had been referred for a brain scan to see if her memory and concentration problems were linked to a childhood traffic accident, but she was still on a waiting list for the scan when she died.

The hearing, which is expected to last three days, continues.