A VIOLENT robber has died in prison while serving a long jail sentence for crimes including an horrendous attack on a Good Samaritan in York.

The Prison Service confirmed today that Christopher Martin Gilchrist, who was serving more than seven years for a variety of offences, had been found hanging in his cell at Hull Prison.

A prison service spokesman said today: "I can confirm Christopher Martin Gilchrist, who was 28, was found unconscious in his cell on December 4.

"Efforts were made to revive him by prison staff and an ambulance was called, but he was pronounced dead 35 minutes after being found."

A spokesman for Hull Coroner's Office confirmed an inquest into Mr Gilchrist's death had been opened and adjourned.

In May this year, Mr Gilchrist appeared at York Crown Court and admitted two robberies and a breach of parole from a previous three-year jail term for burglary.

He was jailed for six years for the two robberies, and ordered to serve a further year and five months from his previous prison sentence.

At the time of the court appearance, his address was given as Prospect View, Northallerton, but Mr Gilchrist is believed to have family connections in York.

The court heard how he had met one of his victims, William McAllister, during an evening walk next to the river, and told him he was homeless.

Mr McAllister offered the stranger a bed for the night and gave him medical treatment for his injured foot. But while the two were watching television in the Good Samaritan's home, Mr Gilchrist pulled out a six-inch bladed knife, struck Mr McAllister on the head and stole between £30 and £40 from his wallet.

He then bound his victim hand and foot and left him gagged on his own living room floor.

Days before the attack, Mr Gilchrist had pulled the same knife on a 16-year-old kitchen assistant who was sitting reading a magazine in York city centre.

He stole the boy's money, bank cards and some vouchers, forced him to reveal the card's PIN number and said: "If you are lying I will find you and kill you."

As he jailed Mr Gilchrist, The Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, described him as an "ongoing danger to the public."

But Judge Hoffman said he had some sympathy for the defendant because of previous problems in his life which he had tried to blank out with drugs.

Mr Gilchrist's representative in court, Martin Rudland, said at the time that his client would be seeking therapeutic treatment for his problems while in jail.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said today: "This is very sad. A death in custody is a tragedy for the prisoner, their family and for the prison itself.

"The Prison Reform Trust is very concerned about the rising level of suicide in our overcrowded jails."

Updated: 16:07 Wednesday, December 11, 2002