Tragedy on Whatsapp
Boy aged 13 hanged himself after finding out from messaging app that girl he liked had a boyfriend
A TEENAGER was found hanged after discovering that the girl he had a secret crush on was going out with another boy, a coroner heard yesterday.
‘It could not have been predicted’
Harry Storey, 13, told his friends on text messaging service Whatsapp he was having suicidal thoughts when he found that the girl had a boyfriend.
But he then carried on the conversation he was as joking. usual and his friends thought
It is believed that the schoolboy lost consciousness quicker than he had expected to, and as a result, his death was unintentional.
Oxford coroner’s court heard yesterday that Harry’s father, Andrew Storey, came home from work and found his son hanged.
The youngster’s devastated family had regarded him as an ordinary, happy boy with no previous mental health issues. Giving evidence, Mr Storey said: ‘I walked through the front door and I thought Harry was looking down at his phone but I quickly realised he wasn’t. I could not comprehend what I was seeing.’
He told the court that he started to perform CPR on his son and urged his wife to ring for help when she returned home.
‘Harry was a charismatic, caring boy and sport was a huge part of his life, playing rugby, cricket and tennis,’ said Mr Storey.
‘He would talk to anyone with ease and he had a natural ability to strike up a conversation which I admired him for. He seemed to us to be just a normal teenager but he did have high expectations of himself. It came as a complete shock to me.’
Harry was take by ambulance from his home near Didcot in Oxfordshire to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and remained in the paediatric intensive care unit for three days until his death.
The inquest heard that a programme that the Storey family had recently watched together on TV may have influenced Harry’s actions.
‘We watched a programme where the female star had hanged herself but her friends rescued her. It made us wonder whether he had a sensationalised view of what might happen,’ said Mr Storey.
Detective Sergeant Lou Heffernan- Glover, who has experience of similar cases, told the court that it was likely that the boy had not realised the severity of what he was doing. He said: ‘I believe Harry would not have been aware of how short the period is when you lose consciousness when there is pressure on the neck – it is anything from as little as 30 seconds. ‘He was in a position where he could have put his feet on the floor. I think he lost consciousness unexpectedly. It could not have been predicted or prevented by his family,’ she said. The court heard that Harry’s friends described him as ‘bubbly’ but had heard him mention suicide before in a sarcastic manner. They said he was he was officially ‘just close friends’ with the girl and had carried on the Whatsapp conversation normally after the comments.
Pathologist Dr Deirdre O’Shea confirmed that Harry’s death was caused by a lack of oxygen to his brain due to hanging.
Coroner Darren Salter recorded a verdict of misadventure, saying: ‘ Harry did the action himself and had made comments about suicide. However, teenagers do say things of that nature.
‘There is an element of speculation but it seems to me that Harry did not intend it to be fatal – therefore the conclusion is one of misadventure. Misadventure is similar to an accident, it is the deliberate undertaking of a risk that goes wrong causing death.’
■ For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123, go to a branch or visit www. samaritans.org