A prisoner confessed to strangling his girlfriend and dumping her body before hanging himself in his cell while on remand, an inquest heard today.

Ziaul Haque, 27, of Camden Town, north London, was being held at Winchester Prison accused of the murder of Sylwia Sobczak, 26, when he was found dead on July 28 last year.

Miss Sobczak's burnt body was found dumped in a suitcase in the wealthy Hampshire village of Dummer on May 8 last year.

The Polish woman from Tottenham, north London, was found in the case by a dog walker on a bridleway half a mile from the centre of the village.

The village, near Basingstoke, is home to the families of the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson and socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.

Cellmate Wayne Downer told the inquest that Haque had initially denied the murder but after he was informed there was CCTV evidence against him, he confessed to the crime.

Mr Downer said he had become sickened by Haque's admissions.

He said: ''He kept changing solicitors saying he was not guilty then he confessed to me exactly what he had done because he had been caught on CCTV.

''He thought he would get away with it, then he realised he wouldn't.

''He said he had taken his girlfriend Sylwia back to his flat, I remember him saying he had mangos for lunch with her.

''She had said she had kissed another bloke, had sex with another bloke and he had an argument with her, he blacked out and the next minute she was dead.

''He had strangled her with the iron cord and hid her body under the bed for a few days.

''He found a spot to hide the body, put her in a suitcase, put litres of fuel over the body and set fire to it and drove off.

''I was disgusted by it, I can't get it out of my head.''

Mr Downer added that Haque also allowed him to read his court depositions and said they did not match the confession.

He said: ''It seemed more like he was stalking her, it didn't make sense. He just sickened me, he did.''

Mr Downer said that he told one other prisoner about the confession and also wrote to his mother saying: ''I'm banged up with a sicko who killed the woman at Dummer.''

Mr Downer said that he had informed a prison doctor that Haque had been talking about suicide and was nervous at the prospect of spending a life sentence in prison.

Mr Downer added that when he left the cell on the same day that Haque died, he said to him: ''See you later mate, enjoy your next 20 years.''

In a statement read to the inquest, Prison Officer William Allen said that he found Haque's body as he went to let him out for a period of exercise at 8.59am.

He said that the body was hanging by a ligature tied to a bar across the cell window.

He said that resuscitation attempts were made by prison nurses but were unsuccessful.

Hampshire Police were initially unable to identify the body of Miss Sobczak and made a nationwide appeal for information.

Haque, who had lived in Britain for five years, was to have stood trial on the murder charge at Winchester Crown Court.

The jury in the inquest, in Winchester, returned a verdict that Haque took his own life