A HEARTBROKEN mum who campaigned for prison reform after the death of her daughter in Styal prison took her own life with a massive overdose of anti-depressants, a coroner has ruled.

Pauline Campbell’s body was discovered curled up on her daughter Sarah’s grave in May this year.

Sarah, 18, died of a drugs overdose at Styal prison in 2003.

Ms Campbell, of Market Place, Hampton Heath, Malpas, Cheshire, campaigned tirelessly for prison reform including an independent inquiry into care at Styal following her daughter's death. Sarah was one of six prisoners to die at the jail in 12 months.

She was arrested 15 times after demonstrating outside jails every time a woman prisoner took her own life. The 60-year-old had been treated for depression for 30 years and had made numerous suicide attempts.

Close friends told the inquest they believed she always considered taking her own life as "a way out" if the pain of bereavement became too much.

On the evening of her death, she had become upset after reading public comments on the M.E.N website in response to an article about a letter she sent to the paper.

She took a fatal overdose of Dothiepin tablets before driving to Oakhills cemetery in Malpas, at around midnight on May 15. Her body was found the next morning.

Nicholas Rheinberg, coroner, said: "We have heard that Ms Campbell had quite a long history of depressive illness but her troubles became acute following the tragic death of her daughter in 2003.  Thereafter she dedicated her life to prison reform, in particular women’s prison reform."

He said her close friend and neighbour Susan Courtley described how she could be ‘elated’ when her campaign was going well but ‘reduced to the depths of depression’ if it was not.

Witnesses said that on the evening of May 14, Ms Campbell had been ‘shouting and swearing’ about online reaction to the M.E.N article.

Mr Rheinberg said: "There was a perception of an error or an injustice that had particularly distressed Ms Campbell."

Sarah, a heroin abuser, had been sentenced to a three year prison term after an elderly man collapsed and died while she and friends were hassling him for money.

She took an overdose of drugs she had smuggled in to the segregation at Styal prison.

Mr Rheinberg recorded a verdict that Ms Campbell took her own life and praised her significant contribution to prison reform.