An inquest jury is expected to return a verdict tomorrow on the death of a solitary prisoner found hanging by torn bedsheets from his cell window.

The grim discovery of the body of Richard Carter, 33, of Haworth, was made by prison staff during a routine morning role call on August 26, 2004, at Armley Jail.

Carter had been seven months into a four-year sentence after holding a flick knife to a shopper's throat in Keighley while demanding car keys.

Jurors at the Leeds inquest have heard evidence over four days from 13 witnesses including prison officers, nurses, a doctor, police, as well as from a senior investigator for the Prisons Ombudsman, who raised issues including breach of policy leaving Mr Carter's hanging body in situ for four hours, poor form filling and record keeping at the jail.

And jurors have been told how Carter hid his history of depression and panic attacks from prison officers and health care team in fear of being locked up in a mental institute and not let out.

The day before he died he had been passed as fit for transfer to Lyndholme prison where as many as six inmates share a dormitory.

The court heard how Mr Carter, who had already served part of a sentence at Lyndholme, after trying to blow his own house up, had politely told prison officers he did not want to go because he preferred his own company and did not want to share, he was worried about other inmates hygiene and noise.

The night before his death he warned them he would put up a fight in the morning if they still insisted on his transfer and they would have to take him out in a body belt.