A mother whose drug addict son hanged himself at Bullingdon Prison, near Bicester, has launched a High Court bid to get a fresh inquest held into his death.

Ever since Stephen Woods, 23, used a ligature to hang himself from a light fitting at the prison in August 2004, Sue Woods, 52, has campaigned to uncover the circumstances surrounding his death.

In a three-day hearing at London’s High Court, Mrs Woods, of The Grove, Abingdon, is arguing against the “restrictive” approach taken by Oxford Coroner’s Court at her son’s inquest in June, last year.

The jury concluded Stephen had taken his own life.

But the verdict came after jurors at the inquest were warned their conclusions should not be “judgmental” and that only factors they considered had “caused or contributed” to his death should be recorded in their verdict.

Stephen was waiting to be sentenced when he died in a segregation cell – which he was being kept in due to earlier disruptive behaviour.

He had told his mother that he did not want to return to Bullingdon, where he had been sent some 15 times previously, and reportedly told a friend “he wouldn’t be coming out again,” if he returned.

In the hours before he was found dead, he trashed his cell and pressed an emergency alarm – actions his mother thought were cries for help.

Speaking after last year’s inquest, Mrs Woods said: "Stevie had clearly shown signs of having psychiatric problems.

“If the right systems were in place to ensure the correct steps were taken, I firmly believe he would be here today.”

At the High Court this week, Hugh Southey, representing Mrs Woods, argued that the coroner’s directions were overly-restrictive and prevented the jury from considering wider issues relating to the days before Stephen died.

He argued that jurors could have reached conclusions that led to better practices and pro-cedures at the prison and lessons learnt for the future.

The hearing is seen as a test case that could prompt families who have lost relatives in similar circumstances to come forward and call for a fresh inquest.

Mr Southey told Mr Justice Forbes that Stephen was withdrawing from drugs when he killed himself.

Outside prison, he said Stephen had used up to £500-worth of crack cocaine, heroin and methadone every day.

Mr Southey said it was well-known that drug addicts who went into withdrawal — particularly from such a “huge quantity” of drugs – could have “sharp mood swings”.

He said there was evidence Stephen had been suffering in the days before he died.

However, he said that because of the restrictions placed on them by the coroner, the jurors were prevented from referring to that issue in their verdict, along with evidence relating to staffing levels on the night Stephen died, and alleged inadequacies in the assessment of Stephen as a possible suicide risk.

Urging the judge to order a fresh inquest, the barrister said the coroner should have allowed the jurors to reach their own conclusions on all those issues and produce an “objective narrative verdict” that went beyond the immediate cause of Stephen’s death.

The High Court hearing is set to finish today, although Mr Justice Forbes is not expected to make a decision about whether to order a new inquest until a later date.

tshepherd@oxfordmail.co.uk