A MAN serving four months for driving offences was strangled to death by a convicted murderer in the cell they shared.

Anthony Hesketh, a 37-year-old father of one, was killed with a piece of T-shirt on a wing of Manchester Prison, Strangeways, normally reserved for prisoners serving life.

And today the family of Mr Hesketh claimed he would still be alive but for the "bungling" of the prison service.

Mr Hesketh, of Eastham Way, Little Hulton, was killed by Clement McNally, who claimed to have killed on behalf of Satan.

He was serving a four month sentence for driving offences and was also facing allegations of drug offences, when he was moved to C Wing. He was just a few weeks away from being released when he was placed in a cell with McNally. He was killed five days later.

On Monday, McNally was sentenced to life imprisonment by a judge at Manchester Crown Court after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Mr Hesketh on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

The court heard that 28-year-old McNally was serving a life sentence for stabbing to death a pal at a party.

On the morning of Mr Hesketh's killing, in September, McNally had complained to another inmate that prison staff were "taking the p..." out of him after he refused to give a drug test sample.

Then shortly after 10pm he set off an alarm in his cell and told a prison officer who went to investigate: "Let me out of my pad now...I've done him." Mr Hesketh was found face down on the cell floor with a piece of T shirt, which had been knotted, at the back of his neck.

A clinical psychologist who subsequently examined McNally concluded he was suffering from a severe personality disorder with obsessive compulsive thoughts to kill.

Alan Conrad QC, prosecuting, told the court: "It was made clear to the psychiatrist by the defendant that the killing had brought him pleasure and that he had killed Mr Hesketh as an act on behalf of Satan."

But Mr Hesketh's angry family today demanded to know why he was moved into a cell with a convicted murderer, when he was only serving a short sentence for driving while being disqualified.

Mr Hesketh's sister, Dawn Hopwood, of Aldercroft Avenue, Breightmet, said: "We just can't find out from the prison service why he was moved into that cell.

"If it was not for the prison service putting him in that cell, I'm convinced Tony would still be alive today. You wouldn't think that anything like this could happen in a prison, but it has. We just don't understand why he wasn't protected by the prison service."

Mrs Hopwood paid tribute to her "caring and kind" brother.

She said: "Tony would help anybody and would not hurt a fly. We are a very close family and I loved Tony to bits. I'm glad that McNally has been locked away for life but that won't bring my Tony back.

"My brother Kevin and I are asking our solicitor to help find some answers into Tony's death. We are both determined to find answers."

Mr Hesketh was born in Farnworth but moved to Little Hulton. He went to St James' Secondary School in Farnworth, and had three brothers, two sisters and a 17-year-old son called Danny.

He was a former doorman at Pembroke Halls in Walkden and was also a qualified mechanic and keen boxer.

McNally, aged 28, from Ashton-under-Lyne, was jailed for life two years ago for the murder of father-of-three Arthur Skelly.

The man who led the police investigation into the killing, Det Insp Geoff Amir, said: "This was a deplorable murder and imprisonment for life is a fitting sentence although it cannot bring Anthony back."