EXTRA training is being offered for staff at a prison where an alleged double killer from Burnley was found hanging.

Prison inspectors have blasted HMP Manchester, formerly known as Strangeways, for their ‘fatalistic’ approach to inmate deaths.

Burnley-born Barry Morrow was found dead in his cell at the city jail earlier this month, while awaiting trial for the murder of his landlady Angela Holgate and her mother Alice Huyton in Southport.

An inspection conducted last September expressed alarm that there had been seven self-inflicted deaths at the prison over the past two years.

Morrow, who grew up in Brush Street and attended Ivy Bank High, was due to stand trial over the murders in May.

Nick Hardwick, chief inspector of prisons, said: "The level of self-inflicted deaths has been too high for too long and should be no more accepted as an inevitable feature of the prison today than any of the other grim aspects of its past.

Mr Hardwick has recommended extra training for staff.

He added: "There was a degree of fatalism in the prison's response to this - that was the way things were in Manchester, I was told.

"Arrangements for caring for prisoners at risk of self-harm or suicide were not poor but there was room for improvement.

"The prison was not active enough in ensuring lessons were learnt from previous cases (both at Manchester and elsewhere) and ensuring they were consistently applied.

"The leadership of the prison should now bear down on this issue with the same determination and skill with which they have successfully addressed so many other issues."

The Prison Reform Trust has expressed concern regarding the figures and urged prison bosses to ‘learn lessons’ from the deaths.