AN inquest was told today that York teenager Kirk Edwards, who was found hanging in his cell in a young offenders' institution, was upset on his arrival there because both his parents had cancer.

He felt very guilty because he couldn't help them, nurse Dawn Ormsby told the inquest at Harrogate.

He also told her he had previously taken an overdose, but it had been accidental.

The nurse said he had told her he did not intend harming himself, his body language and eye contact had been good, and she had believed him and had not placed him under regular supervision as an inmate at risk of suicide.

The inquest was taking place 15 months after the 17-year-old, of Lucas Avenue, Clifton, was found hanging in his cell at Wetherby Young Offenders' Institution on May 26 last year.

Kirk, who had learning difficulties, had been sentenced two days earlier by Selby Youth Court for a series of offences.

Nurse Ormsby said her role was to assess Kirk's physical and mental condition and whether he was at risk of harming himself. "I felt Kirk wasn't a danger to himself," she said.

A fellow inmate at the institution told the inquest that he had spotted Kirk hanging in his cell and had alerted officers.

He said Kirk had seemed "OK and normal" when he had seen him earlier in the evening.

He claimed that prison officers had put books in Kirk's cell after the hanging incident to make his parents feel better.

He said Kirk had been locked in his cell for 23 hours in the day from his arrival, emerging only for meals and one period of association, and had no books or TV in his cell.

Prison officer Michael Taylor, who was the first officer to reach Kirk after he was found hanging, was unable to give evidence today because he was unfit.

But in a statement, he said that he had pulled Kirk free of a ligature around his neck made of shoe laces and had begun attempting to resuscitate him. He said he had conducted mouth-to-mouth, while another officer had attempted heart massage.

Pathologist Dr Guy Rutty said Kirk had died through hanging. He said marks on his body, including bruises on different parts of his head were not, in his opinion, suspicious, and had probably been caused when he was freed from the ligature and during subsequent resuscitation attempts.

Kirk had died at Harrogate District Hospital four days after he had been found hanging.

PICTURE: Kirk Edwards: died in hospital