Public schoolboy killed himself after missing out on first-choice university
A GIFTED former pupil of a top UK school killed himself after missing out on a place at his chosen university, an inquest heard.
Jasper de Pelet took off his seatbelt and ‘deliberately’ veered into an oncoming articulated lorry at more than 60mph.
Seconds before the crash, the 18year- old, who was on a gap year after missing out on a place at Bristol, sent his mother a heartbreaking text saying: ‘I’m sorry.’ In journals found after his death, he wrote of his anxiety, saying: ‘Even when I am at my happiest, sadness can crush me at any time.’
An inquest at Salisbury Coroner’s Court heard the brakes of Jasper’s Volkswagen Golf were not applied as he drove across the hatched central reservation. His father Louis, a counsellor, and mother Rebecca, head of English at the £12,000-a-term Sherborne School in Dorset, wiped away tears as they listened to the details.
In a statement read to the court, Mrs de Pelet said: ‘ Jasper had a creative flair, he loved writing, performing... He went to prep school in Sherborne and excelled in English and Latin. He missed out on a place at Bristol University and became despondent and unhappy... Eventually he got a place to do history at Cardiff.’ Mr de Pelet, who had an older and a younger sister, had ‘ high standards’, his GP Joanna Briffa said. He had been seeing a counsellor and been prescribed Prozac.
Sherborne is one of the UK’s oldest schools. Alumni include actor Hugh Bonneville and enigma codebreaker Alan Turing. A school spokesman said: ‘Jasper was an exceptionally kind and gentle young man.’
On the day of his death, he had driven to visit girlfriend Georgia Mae Holzer. She told the court: ‘He left at 4pm and went home. He left in good spirits...’ About an hour later, at 5.17pm on November 9, Mr de Pelet texted his mother saying: ‘ I’m sorry.’ She instantly replied: ‘ What for?’ but got no response. She later discovered diary entries reading: ‘What is the point of life?’
PC Michelle Jones, who investigated the crash on the A303 in Wiltshire, said it was caused by ‘a conscious driver input from Mr de Pelet’.
David Ridley, senior coroner for Swindon and Wiltshire, said: ‘ Jasper did intend to drive into the path of that vehicle.’ He recorded a conclusion of suicide.
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