A CONVICTED child rapist from Kendal was butchered in a cell by two ‘cannibal fantasists’ who planned to eat his corpse, an inquest has heard.

Mitchell Harrison, 23, from Kendal, was serving four-and-a-half years in Durham Prison for raping a 12-year-old girl when he was attacked, the hearing was told.

Killers Nathan Mann and Michael Parr hacked him to death on October 1, 2011.

County Durham coroner Andrew Tweddle was told their victim was chosen ‘at random’ and lured to a cell in the prison’s vulnerable prisoner wing on the pre-text of acting as a lookout so Mann and Parr could have sex.

But once inside, Mann jumped Harrison and pushed him face down on the bed while Parr, 34, held his legs, the hearing at Crook in County Durham was told.

Mann strangled Harri-son and stabbed him with a biro and then severed an artery with the home-made scalpel, which ultimately caused his death, said police.

The pair then attempted to disembowel him to eat his liver, but the inquest heard ‘they did not like the look of it’.

Instead, the two killers – diagnosed as psychopaths by pyschiatrists - ‘had a cup of tea’ before calling prison staff.

The pair told officers, who found a ‘lake of blood’ at the scene, that they had done something very bad and needed to be segregated.

Months before the attack Mann, 25, had warned his mental health nurse he planned to ‘kill a nonce’.

He had written graphic descriptions in a diary discovered by prison staff and in a letter had said he planned to commit the ‘goriest killings ever’ to force a move to a seg-regated wing of HMP Frankland.

The nurse, Susan Duffy, said she filled in a Security Information Report after Mann said in January, 2011, he planned to kill – 10 months before Harrison was attacked.

Ms Duffy said Mann was ‘manipulative’ and was making up claims of suffering from anxiety and hearing voices to get medication to sell on.

However, she treated his threats seriously and filled in the report which was sent to the prison’s security department.

She told the hearing: “My gut instinct was that he would carry out those threats, he said he had nothing to lose.”

Robert Young, acting deputy governor at the prison, said threats were an everyday occurrence, while prison officer James Winter said floor staff were only told a report had been made, not the details of it.

Mann was serving life after he killed two women while burgling a nursing home in Leicestershire while Parr was given life for attempted murder in 2003 after he tried to smother a patient at a hospital where he was being treated.

The pair had been planning to kill an inmate for several weeks and had fantasised about eating their victim, the hearing was told.

For killing Harrison, both were given life sentences in July last year.  Both are in solitary confinement and unlikely to be released.

Speaking at the end of the inquest, coroner Mr Tweddle said he had ‘major concerns’ over the way information about Mann had been shared prior to the attack.

He said: “I suggest the prison service carry out a further review to ensure the best information is given to the right people at the right time. It might not have made a difference here but it might on another occasion.”

The hearing was told that Mann felt he he had ‘nothing to lose’ as he would not be eligible for parole for more than 20 years.

He said: “I don’t have the guts to kill myself but I do have the guts to kill someone else.”

Mann’s claims had been reported to the prison security department but were not disclosed to the officers on C wing where the two were housed, the hearing was told.

One officer told the coroner he wished he had known about Mann’s claims so he could have kept a closer eye on him.

The 11-strong inquest jury found that Harrison was unlawfully killed.

Forensic psychiatrist professor Anthony Maden said although both killers had severe personality disorders and expressed violent fantasises, the attack would not have hap-pened had they not met.

They ended up in cells next to each other and Mr Maden said: "There was an unfortunate meeting bet-ween the two.”

Mann was considered vulnerable due to being in debt to other prisoners over his drug use, while Parr claimed he wanted to become a woman and formed intense relation-ships with other inmates.

The psychiatrist said the two men were ‘practically impossible’ to treat.