THE mother of a Cheshire teenager who died in prison has attacked the Home Office after the inquest on her daughter was delayed for another year.

Sarah Campbell, 19, died of a suspected drugs overdose the day after arriving at Styal women's prison in Cheshire in March last year.

The date for the inquest has now been provisionally set for January 10, 2005, almost two years after the teenager's death.

Campbell was the third of six women to die at the prison in 12 months.

Her mother, Pauline Campbell, a retired college lecturer who lives in Malpas, has hit out at the Prison Service.

She said: "It's intolerable. I cannot get the answers to my questions and now I'm facing another year of waiting. It is unacceptable that it has taken so long.

"I am astonished. "The Prison Service completed its report into Sarah's death last April but has only handed over the paperwork to the coroner this year.

"I have just been given one excuse after another and it is not good enough.

"Sarah was my only child. I'm grieving but I cannot put anything to rest until the inquest is heard.

"I have a right to find out how she died. Trying to pin down people in the public services is impossible.

"I will not rest until the inquest is held and I find out how her death was allowed to happen."

Campbell was found guilty with another woman of the manslaughter of Amrit Bhandari, an ex-serviceman from Sealand who was accosted in Chester city centre, and sentenced to three years in prison.

It is believed she died from an overdose of prescription drugs.

Mrs Campbell has been campaigning for a full investigation into her daughter's death and has the backing of the Howard League for Penal Reform and the independent charity, Inquest, which represents the relatives of those who have died in custody.

Last August, the Ombudsman, Stephen Shaw, announced that he would be investigating the death of Liverpool mother-of-two Julie Bernadette Walsh, who died at Styal. She was the sixth woman to die at the prison in 12 months.

Campbell's inquest will be heard at Warrington Coroner's Court and has been listed for two weeks.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said: "The coroner holds inquests to his own timetable.

"He has signified the first of the inquests into the deaths at Styal prison will be held in November.

"We cannot publish a full report into the deaths until the inquests are complete."