THE EX-WIFE of a remand prisoner found hanging in his cell claims he would still be alive if her local police station had passed his suicidal letters to the prison service.

Mandy Tranter, 36, of Ysguborwen, Tredegar, says her 18-year-old daughter Sara received a letter from her father, Wayne Tranter, indicating he would "top himself" while on remand in Cardiff prison.

Mr Tranter, 37, also of Ysguborwen, Tredegar, was not considered at risk of taking his own life by the prison authorities.

He was on remand after it was alleged he falsely imprisoned his ex-wife and threatened to kill her.

Mr Tranter had repeatedly maintained he was innocent of the charges during numerous phone calls from prison to his 69-year-old mother Margaret Tranter.

At Cardiff coroner's court yesterday, a jury of four men and four women came to the unanimous decision that Mr Tranter killed himself on May 13 this year.

Mrs Tranter said outside the hearing: "I took two letters to Tredegar police station, and in one of those letters Wayne said he was going to top himself. It has come back to me now that the prison service were never informed of the letters.

"If the letters were taken notice of, Wayne would still be here today." A spokesman for Gwent Police said: "We are aware of letters written by the deceased which we referred to the HM coroner to be considered at the inquest.

"We are satisfied that all relevant materials were available to the coroner and to the authorities that may have had an interest in the inquest.

"Any request for further investigation should be referred to the chief constable." Speaking outside the coroner's court 7, Wayne's 69-year-old mother Margaret, of Walter Conway Avenue, Cefn Golau, said: "I didn't think he did what he was in for.

"He would phone me when he was in prison and tell me he was innocent. "I think that was what drove him to take his own life."