A TEENAGE prisoner was found hanged in his cell, an inquest has heard.

Reece Taylor, 18, of Stanford Le Hope, was discovered less than 24 hours after being remanded in custody at Chelmsford Young Offenders Institute on November 14, 2013.

He died the following day at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford.

He had been remanded following a court appearance on November 11, 2013, at Basildon Magistrates' Court where he was accused of assaulting his father the previous day.

An inquest, which began on Monday at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court led by HM Coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray, heard how the young father had a history of self-harming and had made a previous suicide attempt after an incident July 26, 2013, during which he assaulted his mother then threatened to jump off a bridge.

He was later jailed for the offence and released in October.

During the second day of the inquest, the jury heard from Sandy Veerasamy, a mental health nurse who visited Mr Taylor while he was held at Grays police station following the incident in November and at Basildon Magistrates’ Court following his hearing, where Mr Veerasamy said he was angry and upset about being remanded in custody but did not present any signs of wanting to harm himself.

Mr Veerasamy told the coroners court: “I asked if he had thought about harming himself and he said ‘no, I will just have to take it on the chin and go to prison and do my time’.”

Two prison officers, Mitchell Saunders and Graham Lower, who dealt with Mr Taylor on the day he entered the prison in November, also gave evidence.

Mr Lower told the court about a incident during Mr Taylor’s previous prison sentence, when he had been due to be transferred to another facility but this was cancelled when he, along with five other prisoners on the transfer bus, began to self harm.

But when asked about his state of mind when he arrived during the November, Mr Lower said: “He was jovial, he was laughing and joking and smiling.”

Mr Saunders, who was asked if this could have been an 18-year-old masking his true feelings, added: “That didn’t cross my mind.

“I’m aware that prison is a dangerous place and that people change their behaviours and act out of character but the impression I got was that this wasn’t the case.”

A statement from Doreen Case, Reece’s mother, added: “Reece was a wonderful young man and we miss him very much.

"We have been waiting many months to find out what happened in those last hours of his life and we hope that the inquest will finally provide those answers."

The inquest is expected to continue into next week.