THE heartbroken family of a prisoner who hanged herself only hours after being jailed have told how she was a "lovely girl" who was being bullied in prison.

The sister and mother of drug addict Rebecca Louise Turner, 22, said the mother-of-two was prepared to serve her prison sentence, but took her life as a "cry for help".

They said Ms Turner, who was jailed on Monday and was found hanged in her cell at Low Newton Prison, near Durham, on Wednesday morning, was being victimised by a woman she knew from outside prison.

"She was quite prepared for the sentence. She packed her suitcase and was ready for it, she was going to sort herself out in there," said her sister, Claire Wade, 27, of Acomb, York.

"But she went in and a woman immediately started on her, she wanted vengeance from outside," she said.

She said the prison was in the process of moving the other woman, but in the meantime Ms Turner hanged herself in her cell.

Ms Turner's mother, Janet Wade, said: "She's left two kids behind, and a family that loves her to bits.

"She was a lovely lass, she would have done anything for anybody, and had hundreds of friends who are all crying their eyes out."

Ms Turner was jailed for two years and three months at York Crown Court on Monday on two charges of being involved with the supply of crack cocaine last summer.

A spokesman for the Prison Service said: "After every death, an internal investigation is conducted and there is also a coroner's investigation looking into the death and what led up to it.

"It would be inappropriate to speculate what may or may not have happened before these take place."