A MOTHER has been found hanged two weeks after her father was convicted of murder.

Gordon Meale’s 27-year-old daughter, Stacey, died on Wednesday night in the flat she shared with her two young children near Bishop Auckland, County Durham.

Meale was jailed for 11 years on June 17 for murdering Jimmy Scaife, his next door neighbour in Sunnydale, Shildon, County Durham, following a bitter feud.

The row had simmered for several years until it escalated from verbal abuse to physical violence, resulting in Mr Scaife’s death on December 30.

He died of head injuries after the two men came to blows on a path known as Green Lane.

Meale’s supporters produced more than 30 letters to the court, describing him as a decent, hard-working man, while police said it was a “terrible tragedy for both families.”

Miss Meale was not called to give evidence in the trial, but another witness told of a row between her and her father that had ended in punches being thrown.

It is not known whether Meale has been told of his daughter’s death.

He had remained close to his granddaughters, even though his marriage to Stacey’s mother ended some time ago.

Police broke into the flat in Cambridge Court, Tindale Crescent, at 8pm on Wednesday after her mother, Libby Meale, raised the alarm. The children, who are aged between eight and 11, were not in the flat at the time.

Police said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death and that the Durham coroner had been informed.

Neighbours said they understood Miss Meale had been suffering from depression.

In 2003, she spoke to reporters after her elder daughter, Lauren, spent most of her fourth birthday in hospital undergoing health checks when she fell on a discarded syringe while playing with friends. She told “Grandad Gordon”

it had been a needle like doctors use on TV.

Stacey, then 19, spoke of her horror while she waited for tests for HIV and hepatitis tests. She said: “Drug users are ruining this estate.

There must be a way to get these people away from family homes. Why should we have to go through this hell?”

Friends of the family living in the Tindale Crescent and Woodhouse Close area spoke of their shock and sorrow last night.

One neighbour said: “There is a lot of bitterness about what happened.

No one wants to talk.”

The family were remembered in messages of sympathy posted last night in Woodhouse Close Church, close to where Stacey and her mother live.

Priest-in-charge the Reverend Brenda Jones said: “We are greatly saddened to hear of the loss.

Two young children have been left without their mother and our prayers are with them.”