I thought the cheese would cause a rash – not kill him
Prank boy who targeted dairy allergy pupil tells inquest:
A SCHOOLBOY told yesterday how he flicked a piece of cheese onto the neck of a fellow pupil with a severe dairy allergy, who later died.
The youngster said he was playing around and thought the food would give Karanbir Cheema a rash rather than kill him.
Karanbir, 13, was severely allergic to wheat, gluten, all dairy products, eggs and nuts. He was also asthmatic and had eczema.
The youngster, known as Karan, suffered a serious allergic reaction to the cheese slice, which was half the size of a Post-it Note.
An inquest heard it happened at his school on June 28, 2017 during morning break. It was claimed that one of Karan’s school friends gave another boy a piece of cheese from his baguette before he was allegedly overheard saying: ‘Karan is allergic to cheese.’
The other boy then flicked the cheese at Karan, who went into anaphylactic shock at William Perkin Church of England High School in Greenford, west London.
The two boys, who cannot be named for legal reasons, gave evidence from behind screens to the inquest at Poplar Coroners’ Court.
The boy who flicked the cheese apologised to Karan’s parents, Armajeet and Rina Cheema, telling them: ‘I didn’t mean any harm – I’m sorry for what I did.’
The inquest heard that he would throw food at other pupils ‘daily’. He said: ‘From a past incident I knew [Karan] was allergic to bread but that’s all I knew.’ Asked by coroner Mary Hassell if he knew what reaction someone could get from an allergy, he said: ‘I thought maybe he would get a fever or a rash and miss school... I didn’t know it could lead to death.’
He said he ‘flicked’ the cheese at Karan from about a foot away.
‘He was the first person I saw... he was facing away from me,’ he said. ‘I think it landed on the left side of his neck. After that Karan just told me, “I’m allergic to cheese.” I apologised after that.’
Asked why he threw the cheese he said: ‘I don’t know.’ Later, he added: ‘We would play games with whatever we had, that being food’. The other boy denied saying Karan was allergic to cheese.
When paramedics arrived at the school, they found Karan ‘gasping for air’ and performed CPR on him. Staff had already given him his EpiPen, a device used to inject medication into those with severe allergies. They had also given him the anti-allergy drug Piriton.
But the EpiPen was a year out of date, and staff did not use EpiPens belonging to other students on Karan, the inquest heard.
Karan, described as ‘so bright he could have been anything he wanted’, was taken to Great Ormond Street Hospital, but died on July 9. The inquest continues.