Prisons protest mother cleared

A grieving mother who stood in front of a prison van during a protest about the "disgraceful" number of women inmates dying in custody has been cleared of obstructing the highway.

Pauline Campbell, 59, from Malpas, broke down in tears after hearing she had not broken the law by demonstrating outside HMP Eastwood Park, South Gloucestershire, in January.

The former college lecturer had been accused of deliberately blocking two prison vans attempting to take female inmates into the jail.

But North Avon Magistrates Court ruled yesterday the prosecution had failed to prove she had intended to obstruct a public highway and found her not guilty of the charge.

Mrs Campbell decided to campaign against conditions in women's prisons after her daughter, Sarah, 18, died of an overdose at Styal prison in Cheshire in January 2003.

She has staged 26 protests outside jails across the country and been arrested 14 times, but never prosecuted.

Speaking after the case, Mrs Campbell vowed to continue her protest.

"This is a victory for common sense and justice has been done," she said. "I'm grateful I haven't got a criminal record.

"This trial has been an ordeal, but it hasn't put me off, if anything it has made even more determined because there have been 39 women who have died in prison since my daughter died."