A PRISONER has admitted killing a convicted child rapist in his North-East jail cell.

Michael Parr, 32, pleaded guilty to the murder of Mitchell Dean Harrison, who was serving an indefinite sentence at the high-security Frankland Prison, near Durham City, during a brief hearing at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday.

Harrison, 23, originally from Wolverhampton, was attacked and reportedly disembowelled in his cell in October last year.

Parr entered his guilty plea via a video link from Woodhill Prison, Milton Keynes, another high-security jail where he is currently serving a sentence.

No further details were given during yesterday morning’s short hearing.

Mr Justice Openshaw told Parr: “You will be sentenced on July 12.”

Nathan Mann, 23, is also charged with Harrison’s murder and is due back in court next month.

Harrison was jailed in January 2010 after he admitted raping a teenage girl in Kendal, Cumbria, in August 2009.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of rape at Carlisle Crown Court, where he was given an indeterminate sentence and told he would have to serve at least four-and-ahalf years behind bars before being considered for release.

It later emerged a photograph of Harrison taken in 2004, smiling as he sat crosslegged beneath a multicoloured umbrella with a toddler, had appeared on the front cover of Cumbria County Council’s Children’s Services Provider News magazine, about child safety.

After Harrison’s death, his family made a public plea for justice, saying he had not deserved to die in such a horrific way.

After discovering Harrison’s blood-soaked body, four Frankland prison officers remained off work for some time.

Frankland Prison, in Brasside, houses more than 800 of the country’s most dangerous criminals and has been the scene of a string of highprofile assaults.

In April 2010, Peter Chapman, who is serving life for the murder of Darlington teenager Ashleigh Hall, was cut on the face. Weeks before, Soham killer Ian Huntley had his throat slashed with a razor.

Separately, three prison officers were left injured after being attacked by an inmate wielding broken glass.