CRIMINAL proceedings against a transgender Keighley woman, who was found hanged at a male prison, were formally discontinued today.

Judge David Hatton QC said he was satisfied that Vicky Thompson had died and he ordered that her committal for sentence, and a breach of an order, be declared of no legal effect and the files be closed.

Thompson, 21, had told her friends she would kill herself if she was sent to a male prison.

She was being held in a single cell at Leeds Prison, where she was pronounced dead on Friday, November 13. She had told friends she would kill herself if she was sent to a male prison.

Her death triggered an urgent question in the House of Commons, prompting the prisons minister to say the number of transgender prison inmates would be recorded and published for the first time.

Thompson was born male but had identified as female since her mid-teens.

She was given a 12-month jail term in August which was suspended for 24 months.

It is understood she later breached the terms of the sentence, and was remanded in custody at Bradford Crown Court.

The circumstances of her death are being investigated by the police and Home Office.