Tormented mother of prison overdose girl found dead near her daughter's grave

Sarah Campbell's black granite gravestone bears the poignant postscript: "Her mother left broken hearted".

But yesterday there was no more pain for Pauline Campbell, who never got over the death of the wayward teenage daughter who killed herself in prison.

Five years after she buried her little girl, Miss Campbell's body has been found lying near Sarah's grave.

The retired college lecturer had become a passionate campaigner for better conditions in women's jails after Sarah died from an overdose of anti-depressants in Styal Prison in Cheshire in 2003.

Miss Campbell, 60, had blamed the prison system for not recognising her daughter's vulnerable state and spent years campaigning against "inhumane" conditions in women's jails. She was arrested more than a dozen times for demonstrating outside prisons.

She had separated from Sarah's father years before and lived alone in a £170,000 smart detached house in a cul-de-sac in Hampton Heath, near Malpas.

It is thought she died at the cemetery in Malpas after taking a drugs overdose.

Yesterday, fellow prison campaigners paid tribute to Miss Campbell as a loving mother and tireless campaigner.

And a neighbour said: "It's so emotive that she died at the cemetery. Maybe she wanted to go back to her daughter."

Sarah Campbell had died within hours of arriving at Styal Prison in Wilmslow.

As a schoolgirl, she had struggled with depression and left without qualifications despite having an above-average IQ.

Her dreams of going to art school disintegrated after she started using heroin.

She had been jailed for three years for manslaughter after an elderly man she and a friend had been harassing had a heart attack and died.

The case was unusual because the manslaughter conviction was based on a harassment charge rather than physical violence.

Sarah was jailed on Friday, January 17, and on arrival at Styal asked to be sent to a unit for vulnerable prisoners.

Instead, she was put in a segregation unit and the next day swallowed 120 anti-depressants she had stockpiled before being locked up.

At the inquest, Jean Craven, then duty governor at Styal, said she had gone into Sarah's cell to assess her on the Saturday but had not read a document warning that she was at risk of harming herself.

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The coroner recorded a narrative verdict, saying the overdose had been a cry for help rather than intentional suicide.

Sarah was the youngest of six women to die from self-inflicted injuries in a year at Styal.

Only this week, Miss Campbell told how her relentless campaigning after her daughter's death had become a "drain" on her "emotional health".

She spoke after charges relating to one of her protests outside Styal were dropped. She said: "This prosecution has felt like an attack on my reputation.

"But I believe in standing up for principle because it is one of the few ways in which people can make a difference."

Last night, prison reformers paid tribute to her tireless work as a campaigner for better safety for female inmates.

Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "Pauline Campbell was a loving mother, a generoushearted woman and a human being of indescribable bravery.

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"Pauline was also the single most effective and inspiring campaigner for penal reform in recent years. Her uniquely courageous voice will live on."

Juliet Lyon, of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "Her death makes me so sad. She tried so hard to make a difference.

"It's almost impossible to imagine how hard it is to carry such immense grief, but I admired her for the way in which she grew in her pain to try her very best to help others."

Neighbour Wendy Newman, 47, said: "Pauline was a very intelligent lady who had not been a happy person since the death of her daughter. It had taken over all her thoughts. It's better for her to be reunited with her."