A JURY has returned a verdict of suicide on a 14-year-old boy who hanged himself in a privately-run secure unit.

Adam Rickwood was the youngest person to die in custody when he hanged himself with his shoelaces at the Serco-run centre in County Durham in 2004.

Following a month-long inquest at Chester-le-Street Magistrates Court, a jury of nine women and one man ruled that he had intended to take his own life.

The inquest had heard that the troubled teenager, of Burnley, Lancashire, had written to his mother saying he would kill himself if he was not taken out of the centre.

Adam had been sent to Hassockfield Secure Training Centre - a 40-bed unit - 150 miles from his home.

The jury heard he had suffered from mental health problems and suicidal tendencies.

Adam's mother, Carol Pounder, sobbed into her hands as the foreman of the jury returned the majority 9-1 verdict.

Full story, background and reaction in tomorrow's Northern Echo