AN INVESTIGATION is in progress after a Gwent man was found dead in his prison cell.

Wayne Tranter, aged 37, from Ysguborwen, Tredegar, was discovered hanging in his cell at Cardiff prison on May 13, a Home Office spokesman said last night.

The spokesman added: "He was found hanging in his cell at 1.14pm on May 13 by two members of staff.

"An ambulance was called and paramedics attempted resuscitation, but he was pronounced dead at 2.45pm.

"As with all deaths in prison, an internal investigation will be conducted into the incident." At Newport crown court yesterday, crown prosecutor David Watts said Mr Tranter had been sent to the court by Blackwood magistrates on charges of making threats to kill and false imprisonment.

After a preliminary hearing at Cardiff crown court, he had been remanded in custody until June 20.

The case against him was formally discontinued.

It is understood that his death is not being treated as suspicious.

A Gwent Police spokeswoman said that Mr Tranter had been arrested on April 28 after a "domestic incident", during which he had been "drunk and abusive".

The spokeswoman added: "No-one was physically hurt, but because of the nature of the threats made, there was enough to charge him."

Mr Tranter's death is the latest of a number of custody deaths at Cardiff prison.

In 2000, Newport man Colin Bloomfield, 35, was found brutally killed in his jail cell. He was strangled and mutilated by cell mate Jason Ricketts, 29, from Caerphilly, after being "told to do it by voices".

Ricketts pleaded guilty at Newport crown court in February 2001 to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He was sentenced to be detained at Ashworth High Security Hospital, Liverpool, for an unlimited time.

Mr Bloomfield's mother, Eileen, called for the governor to resign after hearing details in court of her son's death.

But Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons said in a report, carried out between February 27 and March 1, 2001: "There had been significant changes in helping the mentally disturbed in the prison."