An inquest into the death of a vulnerable prisoner from Southend who was found hanged in the segregated unit of a high security prison has begun.

The inquest into the death of Paul Day<OK> - who had told fellow prisoners and staff he was a police informer - is expected to last up to a month.

Day, 31, lived in Branksome Road, Southend, when he was jailed for seven-and-a-half-year prison for a series of armed robberies of buildings societies and banks at Basildon Crown Court in February 2001.

The hold-ups, which netted £4,500 in eight days across the north of England, were revealed on the BBC's Crimewatch UK programme.

He was arrested after two failed robbery bids in the Southend area.

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