A JURY was sent out to consider its verdict last night at the end of a near four-week inquest into the death of a 14-year-old boy found hanged in a privately-run secure unit.

Adam Rickwood was the youngest person in Britain to die in custody when he was found hanging by his shoelaces in the Serco-run centre in County Durham in August 2004.

The youngster, from Burnley, in Lancashire, was on remand at the 42-bed Hassockfield Secure Training Unit, near Medomsley, more than 150 miles from his home town.

An inquest opened on May 1 at Chester-le-Street Magistrates' Court.

Yesterday, Durham Coroner Andrew Tweddle summed up the hearing and formally sent the jury out for a brief period before sending them home for the night.

The jury, of nine women and one man, will continue their deliberations in the morning.

They have been given a list of 11 questions they need to answer while deliberating their verdict.

The inquest has heard the troubled teenager had written to his mother saying he would kill himself if he was not taken out of the unit.

Hours before his death, he had been restrained by staff using a controversial "nose distraction technique", in which upward pressure is placed on the nose to cause a short pain.