A ROBBER jailed for subjecting a pizza restaurant manageress to a terrifying ordeal has been found dead in his cell at Channings Wood jail at Denbury, Newton Abbot.

Terence Devereux barged his way into her office at the On The Waterfront restaurant on Exeter Quay one day in February 2019 as they were closing.

He smashed two phones she used to try to call the police and attacked a sous chef who went to her aid. 

The 31-year-old then smashed his way into the city’s main Post Office where he failed to break into a stamp machine.

Devereux admitted attempted robbery, assault causing actual bodily harm, battery, burglary and criminal damage and was jailed last August for three years by a judge at Exeter Crown Court.

The court heard he was homeless and had been trying to fund his heroin and crack cocaine habit by begging on the streets of Exeter.

Devereux was found dead at Channings Wood jail at Denbury on Sunday (May 24). His next of kin have been told, a Ministry of Justice spokesman confirmed.

His cause of death has not been revealed and a coroner will hold an inquest at a later date. An independent inquiry by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will also be held.