An asylum-seeker cleared of rioting at Campsfield House, Kidlington, tried to hang himself with strips of blanket because he feared being deported to Nigeria.

Enahoro Esemuze was found by inmates hanging from a toilet ceiling in Rochester Prison, Kent, where he has been held since his trial collapsed. They held him while guards cut him down.

Unless his lawyers manage to persuade the Home Office to let him stay, he faces being deported to Nigeria, where he claims he has been tortured.

Campaigners are angry that Mr Esemuze came so close to killing himself after it was rumoured he had been placed on "suicide watch" and kept in a hospital wing of the prison.

Meanwhile, two asylum-seekers due to be deported today and tomorrow have been given a few more days in Britain while lawyers appeal for them to stay.

John Quaquah and Stanley Nwaidike, who has tried to commit suicide twice, were transferred to Rochester Prison straight after the Crown Court case against them collapsed last month.

It was alleged they and seven others had rioted at Campsfield.

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