THE grieving mum of Whitefield teenager Ian Swain is considering legal action against the remand centre where her son was found hanged.

Yvonne Swain says she is unhappy about the level of care offered by Hindley Remand Centre.

Her comments came after an inquest in Leigh on Tuesday returned a verdict of suicide.

Ian Swain (pictured), who was 18, was found hanging from a sheet in the remand centre's hospital wing in March. He had earlier threatened to take his own life.

At the time of his death, the former pupil of Bury's Derby High School had been at Hindley for three months on a burglary charge pending a court case.

Following the inquest Mrs Swain, formerly of Clarence Avenue, Whitefield, said: "Any person who goes to prison is vulnerable, but each individual case should be judged on its merits. And as far as I'm concerned, a close enough watch wasn't kept on Ian."

Since her son's death, Mrs Swain and her family have been gathering information on the guidelines given to prisons concerning suicidal inmates.

"I don't feel these guidelines were adhered to," said Mrs Swain, who now lives in Central Avenue, Bury.

"Perhaps if they had been, Ian wouldn't have died." She had earlier disclosed that just a few days before his death, Ian sent a letter to his solicitor which raised concerns over the teenager's state of mind.

An appeal was apparently made to the remand centre to keep a special watch on the prisoner.

However, Dr Steven Carney, Hindley's medical officer at the time, told the inquest Ian was not on special watch.

"There was a question at one time whether or not he was fit to plead and could give clear instructions to his representative," he said.

The Whitefield man was found hanged 25 minutes after last being seen alive.

Mrs Swain told the hearing her son had been in trouble since he was 11, being expelled from school and spending some time in voluntary care.

He had made a number of court appearances and, on separate occasions, was fined, given community service and was electronically tagged.

She said: "Over the last 12 months, he had become more dependent on drugs and I was told he had twice tried to commit suicide, once by hanging and the other time by cutting his wrists."

A jury returned a verdict the teenager had killed himself while the balance of his mind was disturbed.

Mrs Swain continued: "We are pleased with the outcome of the inquest and feel it now gives us the opportunity to explore further avenues.

"I know there is nothing I can do for my son now, but if procedures are tightened up, then perhaps we can do some good for someone else's son."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.