A 35-year-old mentally disturbed male prisoner was found dead in his prison cell at Hu'atolitoli Prison, Vaini, on January 8.

The Prison Superintendent Sione Falemanu told Matangi Tonga Online this morning, January 12, that the prisoner, Sione Palanite from the village of Houma, Tongatapu, was found dead by one of the prison guards at around 3:30pm on January 8, after other inmates had alerted the guard.

He confirmed that the deceased was found hanging by a thread tied to the iron bar window of his cell.

The prisoner was kept together with three other mentally disabled patients in a one-house cell that was recently built for them within the new prison walls, but was separate from the two main prison cells where the other prisoners are kept, said Sione.

The deceased entered Hu'atolitoli Prison in July 2010 to serve a one-year sentence for the offence of being found at night in a private property. He was due to be released from prison in May this year.

The Superintendent said that when Sione was sent to prison in July last year he was mentally able and was fine, and it was not until September that he started to become mentally unstable.

"We admitted him to the psychiatric unit at Vaiola Hospital for treatment - that is until December 31, 2010 that Dr Mapa Puloka called me to send him back to Hu'atolitoli because they could not control him," he said.

The Superintendent said another male prisoner who was also mentally disabled had committed suicide earlier in 2009.

Sione Palanite was first sentenced to prison in 2002 for four and a half years for robbery and other crimes. He was a repeat offender.