A BULLIED prisoner was discovered hanged after being moved to another jail in the same prison van as his tormentor.

The second day into his arrival at Holme House Prison, Stockton, Adam Larder, 21, was found dead in his cell.

Home Office Pathologist James Sunter told a Middlesbrough inquest that besides the ligature mark around his throat, Larder had week-old bruises to his torso and limbs.

The inquest heard that when the evidence of bullying first came to light at Doncaster Prison, from where Adam Larder was transferred, he was found weeping in the prison showers, with bruises on his arms.

His father, retired labourer Joseph Larder, told Teesside Coroner Michael Sheffield that shortly before his son was moved to Holme House, he told him he had been struck on the back of the head with a pool ball.

Clareena Kacarevic, a former unit manager at Doncaster Prison, said Larder gave her several false explanations for his weeping and bruises.

But he eventually told her that fellow inmate Daniel Thompson was bullying him.

He complained that Thompson "had punched him because his face didn't fit".

Larder, who was from Rotherham, refused to go back to his unit and was moved to another house block. Thompson was issued with a bullying order.

Because of acute over crowding problems in prisons at that time - May 1997 - the decision was made to move a batch of 11 prisoners, including Thompson and Larder to Holme House.

Explicit on Thompson's paper work was that he had to be kept separate from Larder.

The two were kept in separate cells at opposite ends of the prison bus and were taken off the bus separately at Holme House Prison.

But on arrival in the reception area, he was assaulted by another prisoner.

The inquest continues.