THE prisons watchdog says the last handful of women inmates should be moved from a pre-Victorian North-East jail as soon as possible.

Chief Inspector of Prisons Anne Owers says in a report published today that the females were being kept at Durham Prison more than a year after she first called for the women's unit to be closed.

In May last year, the watchdog called for them to be moved as a matter of urgency to a more suitable prison. The Home Office also ordered the Prison Service to find them alternative accommodation.

One inmate, 20-year-old Louise Giles, of Sheffield, who was serving 14 years for stabbing a woman to death, was found hanged in her cell two weeks ago.

Ms Owers praised the Prison Service for the way it transferred most women from the jail, but said the operation must now be completed.

"The few who remained were held in an even less suitable environment than the one we last inspected,'' she said.

"Urgent action is required to ensure that women prisoners are no longer held in such isolated and alienating conditions.''

The women were "restricted status'' prisoners, who had committed serious offences and some had serious mental health problems.

Prison Service director general Phil Wheatley said: ''The women who remain in Durham present a real and ongoing risk.

''They will be transferred shortly, but only when the accommodation they are moving to has been upgraded to counteract that risk.''

Campaigner Pauline Campbell, of Cheshire, who stages protests at jails where women inmates take their own lives, described the situation as inexcusable.

Mrs Campbell, whose daughter, Sarah, killed herself in jail, visited the prison last week in the wake of Louise Giles' death. She believes that women such as Giles, a paranoid schizophrenic, should not be in jail, where they can get no help.

She said: "Shock is not the word to describe it. It was horrific to learn that that this vulnerable 20-year-old died in Durham Prison, which as far I was concerned, had become a men's prison only.

"It is disgraceful. What is the point of having a Chief Inspector of Prisons if they are not going to take up her recommendations. Unfortunately, this happens time and time again.'