A HAMPSHIRE man who murdered his four-year-old son and tried to kill his baby daughter hanged himself in Winchester prison on Father's Day, an inquest heard.

The body of Leslie Pepall, 29, was found by prison staff hanging from the bars of his single cell window by a bed sheet at Winchester Prison in June.

On the inside of an open cabinet door facing Pepall's body a collection of newspaper cuttings on his trial had been stuck up with toothpaste.

Pepall, of Gosport, was jailed for life in March for killing his son Ben and stabbing his then 11-month-old daughter Chloe after his wife revealed her affair with his best friend.

Prison officer Andrew Newman told the jury that he found Pepall at 6.30am on the morning of June 18 but that all prisoners had been accounted for at the beginning of the night shift and that there was no indication that he was at any risk.

After being jailed in March Pepall had been routinely placed on the self-harm register because of his crime and spent a long period being assessed by staff for mental illness.

For a while Pepall underwent a hunger strike and had to be taken to the Royal Hampshire County Hospital after he cut his elbow with a razor blade.

But a month before his death he was removed from the register and moved back into the main part of the jail as his behaviour, assessment, and eating habits suggested he was no longer at risk.

The prison's nursing manager Anya Farmborough told the inquest that she had spent some time with Pepall while he was in their health centre.

She said: "He certainly appeared to be very remorseful for the crime.

"He never attempted to deny that he had taken his son's life and accepted the difficulty of living with the knowledge of taking the life of his son and attempting to take the life of his daughter.

"It seems he was very angry at the position he found himself in and the circumstances that had lead him to the course of action he took.

Coroner Grahame Short, said: "This was a very sad set of circumstances that culminated in the death of Mr Pepall."

The Winchester jury returned a seven to one majority verdict of suicide.