A PRISONER found hanged in a Dorset jail took his own life, a jury has decided.

Jurors at a Bournemouth inquest returned a suicide verdict after a two-day hearing into the death of Michael James Devoy, a 22-year-old inmate at Guys Marsh prison near Shaftesbury.

Mr Devoy, whose right arm had been amputated after he suffered meningitis as a child, created a ligature out of bed linen and hanged himself from a light fitting, Dorset coroner Sheriff Payne heard.

The court heard he was serving a nine-month sentence for assaulting his girlfriend and that he had become obsessed with the idea that she was sleeping with another man.

He had been speaking to her on a smuggled mobile phone hours before his body was found in his single cell on August 15, jurors were told.

The body of Mr Devoy, a father-of-three from Gloucester, was found by a fellow inmate.

The inquest heard Mr Devoy had suffered from mental health issues in the past but was not deemed to be a suicide risk.