Sex offender murdered

A murder inquiry has been launched into the death in his jail cell of a prisoner convicted of sex offences, police revealed yesterday.

The dead man was named as Christopher James Smith, 37, from Walsall, West Midlands, who was serving nine years at Long Lartin Prison, in Worcestershire. A police spokesman said a post mortem examination showed he died from severe head injuries.

The spokesman said that other aspects arising from the post mortem were still being investigated. Smith was found dead in his cell at lunchtime on Tuesday. An incident room has been set up at Redditch police station. No murder weapon has been found.

The family of another prisoner who was murdered at Long Lartin, Norman Manning, from Birmingham, was staging a demonstration outside the offices of the Crown Prosecution Service at Droitwich, Worcestershire, yesterday. They say that despite a lengthy police inquiry no-one has yet been charged with the killing.