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Rape case man suicide
A REMAND prisoner on a rape charge hanged himself with his bedsheets, a Worcestershire inquest heard.
Stephen Owen, aged 39, a welder from Kingswinford, was being held at Blakenhurst Prison, near Redditch.
He used the sheets to hang himself at the prison, which has seen 12 deaths in the last four years.
Owen was found in his double cell, which he occupied alone, in January 2006.
None of Owen's family attended the inquest at the coroner's office in Stourport-on-Severn.
A jury decided that Owen had killed himself.
In 2005, it was revealed that Blakenhurst had one of the worst records for inmate suicide. The governor has said that was partly down to a high turnover of remand prisoners.
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