A murderer who strangled his 12-year-old son to death with a shoelace died in prison earlier this year, a new report has revealed. 

Henry Bangs, of Blackpool was imprisoned in 2001 for killing his son, Tony, with a length of knotted shoelace after the boy chose to live with his mother. 

A report from the prisons watchdog says he died at HMP Frankland in County Durham on February 2 this year. 

The circumstances of his death are not yet known and an investigation by the Prison and Probation Ombudsman is underway and findings will be published after an inquest has taken place.

When sentencing Bangs, Judge Peter Openshaw told him he could expect to spend years behind bars for the "entirely dreadful murder". 

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He said: "With great force and brutality you strangled your son, a boy aged only 12.

"You did so because he chose to live with his mother. You wanted to take revenge for, as you saw it, her taking him away from you."

HMP Frankland, which has been dubbed the "monster mansion" because of the many murderers, rapists and terrorists imprisoned there, is a category A prison in Brasside, County Durham.