Gareth Myatt died just three days into his sentence

Gareth Myatt, 15, from Staffordshire, choked to death while being restrained by three guards at Rainsbrook training centre, Northamptonshire, in 2004.

David Tuck, Youth Justice Board monitor at the centre said a number of children had complained about the methods.

It never occurred to him that someone could die, he told the inquest.

Gareth, who was 4ft 10in and weighed less than seven stone, was the first child to die in a privately-run secure unit.

He was held down by two male officers and a female colleague using a Home Office-approved technique called the Seated Double Embrace (SDE).

Children's complaints

The teenager, from Stoke-on-Trent, died on 19 April, 2004, three days into a 12-month sentence at the centre near Daventry, Northamptonshire.

Mr Tuck wrote to the Prison Service in July 2003 and described how children had complained of their heads being pushed down to their knees in the restraint hold and had vomited afterwards.

Mr Tuck said he raised concerns to centre director John Parker and mentioned them in his monthly reports to the Youth Justice Board.

But he said he did not recommend the system to restrain youngsters be examined.

He said: "It concerned me because it was not a nice thing to happen.

"I would not say it concerned me to the extent that I thought 'this is awful, somebody could die', because it didn't occur to me."

Mr Tuck added: "There was never any suggestion to me that any of the holds were a threat to safety at all."