INQUESTS open today into the deaths of three inmates at prisons in the Durham area.

North Durham Coroner Andrew Tweddle will hear brief evidence of identification of the three, who were all found hanged in their cells.

Frankland Prison inmate Paul Stewart Day, 31, from Southend, Essex, had been serving a seven-and-a-half year sentence for attempted robbery when he was discovered on October 2.

Several hours earlier convicted drug runner Beverly Ward, a 32-year-old Jamaican serving her sentence in the women's centre at Durham Jail was confirmed dead on arrival at the city's University Hospital of North Durham.

Terence Gaskell, 33, from Wigan, Greater Manchester, was on remand in Durham Prison accused of the attempted murder in June of his girlfriend at her home in Low Fell, Gateshead. He was found on Monday morning.

Durham Police said there were no suspicious circumstances in any case, none of which were linked.