Loving – and loved – teen’s tragic death
on Friday, November 3, last year with objects arranged in a way that restricted his breathing while his parents were away at a conference in London.
At an inquest in Warrington on Friday, Adam Fulwood, assistant coroner for Cheshire, heard evidence surrounding the circumstances of Lewis’s death, including lines of enquiry that he might have taken his own life but ruled that there was insufficient evidence to indicate that doing so had been the Riverside College student’s intent.
Keith Ashcroft, the deceased’s father, told the hearing he and Lewis’s mother Sue thought that Lewis might have ‘got in one of his tizzes’ and pulled the items into place to obstruct his breathing out of anger.
The inquest heard there was no suicide note nor any expressions of intent in the preceding weeks.
Police examined Lewis’s online XBox gaming activity but found no sign of cyberbullying.
As part of the investigation they looked into whether playing on the fantasy role-playing game Skyrim had put any ideas of suicide in his head because of a purported potential for in-game characters to kill themselves, but found no evidence to that effect.
Furthermore he had no past history of self harm or suicidal thoughts and had been described as ‘happy’, having enjoyed college and adapted to life with cerebral palsy and undiagnosed autism.
Despite that, Mr Ashcroft said that in hindsight his son, had not wanted to stock up on food ahead of his parents’ departure for a conference and on reflecting upon photos of his son in chronological order, he said Lewis appeared to have become tired in the later ones, leading to Mr Fulwood to ● speculate that Lewis had lost some ‘of his sparkle’.
Lewis had also asked ‘do you have to go mum?’
He had also had some anger issues and occasionally his temper would take the better of him before he calmed down.
Mr Ashcroft said they had gone away on previous occasions when Lewis had stayed at home, but stressed they always booked a family room and he could have gone with them had he asked.
Toxicology tests found no drugs or alcohol and a police examination of the scene ruled out foul play.
David Lawton, Lewis’s uncle by marriage, found Lewis’s body after arriving at the Ashcrofts’ Hedge Hey bungalow at 6.10pm on Friday, November 3, after he had been asked by Mr Ashcroft to check on Lewis on Friday after having not received any replies to messages since they left at noon on November 2.
He entered through a master bedroom window following instructions and called 999 when he found the body.
PC Lynda Garner said officers including DS Alison Howarth found no sign of foul play or third-party involvement.
Lewis had suffered no injuries and there was no sign of struggle, she said.
Mr Ashcroft said the incident was likely to have happened on Thursday, November 2, as Lewis had not unpacked the dishwasher – a chore Lewis had claimed as his own and would have been likely to have done due to his habit of drinking a lot of tea while gaming had his death occurred on the Friday.
Mr Fulwood ruled that Lewis had died of suffocation, and that the cause was ‘simply an accident’.
During his summary prior to conclusion, Mr Fulwood said: “He had significant challenges in life in terms of eating and mobility and in general, and with great determination he overcame them, supported by parents with a very practical approach to put Lewis at the centre rather than his disability.
“He was certainly not someone defined by his disability.”