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Murder suspect hanged
Jun 9 2003
By Andy Probert and Mark Cowan, Evening Mail
A man who is accused of murdering a young Birmingham mother has been found dead in his prison cell.
David Steven Boote, 32, was found hanging by bed sheets in his cell at Blakenhurst Prison near Redditch, at 10.45pm last night. He was pronounced dead at the towns Alexandra Hospital shortly after midnight.
It is the fourth inmate death in the last 12 weeks at the prison and follows the suicide in March of Birmingham child killer Steven Wilson.
Boote had been remanded in custody on a charge of murdering 25-year-old Natalie Bowcott, at her home in Arrow Walk, Walkers Heath. He was arrested with another man in the hours after the discovery of her body and questioned for three days before being charged with murder.
Both appeared at Solihull magistrates last Thursday. It is not known which prison is holding the second suspect.
Miss Bowcotts body was discovered on Sunday June 1 by a neighbour who alerted police shortly before midnight.
Detectives called to the maisonette said the dead woman had suffered neck injuries, but ruled out strangulation.
The womans young daughter, who was sleeping in the next room to where her mums body was found, is now being cared for by friends.
Today, a Prison Service spokesman today confirmed an investigation was underway into the death of Mr Boote, whose address has not been released.
She said he was found hanged by bed clothes in his cell by prison officers who frantically cut him down. He was taken to the Alexandra Hospital but died later.
Wilson, who brutally stabbed his two young sons Brad and Bret to death, was the previous high profile suicide to rock the prison.
The double child killer was found hanged in his cell on Mothering Sunday just five days into a double life sentence.
