Ex-BBC journalist found hanged in Turkish airport after being arrested for 'spying' in Africa and had revealed she was a potential ISIS target

A former BBC journalist Jacky Sutton, was found hanged in a toilet cubicle at a Turkish airport. The 50-year-old was said to have missed connecting flight to Erbil in Iraq from London Heathrow. Then she appeared distressed after being told by airline staff that she would have to buy a new ticket and was later found in the toilets by three Russian passengers, according to local media.

She spoke in June of her fears that she may be targeted by the Islamic State while working in the Iraqi city of Erbil, reportedly as acting Iraq director for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.

Her death came just five months after her predecessor at the organisation was killed in a car bomb attack in Baghdad.  

Paying tribute to Ms Sutton, friend Amanda Whitely, posted a blog today on the website Her Canberra which included an autobiographical account of the former United Nations worker's life.

In the piece, which had been intended to be a video life story for the women's online magazine, Ms Sutton told how she suffered post-traumatic distress disorder (PTSD) in 1995 after spending five years in Eritrea which she described as a 'life-changing' experience.

She said: 'I was detained as a spy and deported and many people fled the country. 

'I got (a scholarship) to do a PhD at Leeds University, but my mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and I think I had PTSD from the detention so I was unable to cope. 

'Now there would be counseling, but back then I was given Prozac (anti-depressants) and told to soldier on. I took Prozac for a month, but it had some seriously weird side effects so I stopped.'