A SEX offender from Bradford on Avon has died just over a month after being jailed for six-and-a-half years.

Daniel Davey, 22, died at HMP Bullingdon, in Oxfordshire, on Friday January 12.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said his death in custody would be investigated by the Prison Service Ombudsman.

An inquest into his death opened today in Oxford and was adjourned to a date to be fixed.

Because Davey died in custody, when the inquest resumes, it will by law have to be held by the coroner sitting with a jury. It will be the jury that decides the verdict.

HMP Bullingdon is a resettlement prison near Bicester which houses 1,109 adult and young adult prisoners.

In September 2017, an Inspector’s report into HMP Bullingdon found severe and ongoing staff shortages, and said that since the last inspection three prisoners had taken their own lives, and there was a significant increase in self-harm – support to those at risk was described as “weak”.

His father Ian Hawkins contacted the Wiltshire Times after his death but has not yet responded to a request for an interview.

Davey, formerly of Highfield Road, Bradford on Avon, was jailed at Swindon Crown Court on December 1, after he was convicted on two charges of sexually assaulting a young boy at least six times over 18 months.

The court was told the abuse took place on the boy, who was aged five and six at the time, while Davey was living and working in Chippenham.

The former McDonald’s employee had denied the charges but was found guilty by a jury. He was acquitted on a third charge relating to an allegation that he touched a boy’s bottom.

The abuse was uncovered when the boy spoke to his mother last August and told her that he wanted to tell her “something dirty”. She called police, who found Davey’s DNA on the child’s underwear.

The court was told Davey had abused the boy while babysitting him.

The court also heard that a witness had seen an image on Davey’s computer of a man sexually abusing a child aged about 13.

When confronted about this, Davey said he had been sent it by someone as a joke. By the time he was arrested, he had disposed of the computer.

Davey was ordered by the court to register as a sex offender and was told to serve a lifetime Sexual Harm Prevention Order. A restraining order was also put in place to protect his victim.