Festival death boy earned top GCSE grades
‘Broken’ family pay tribute to 16-year-old believed to have died after taking tablet containing MDMA
‘Leeds Festival was the highlight of his summer; ultimately it was to take his life in the most unfair, cruel and horrible way’
‘Without adequate testing people don’t know what they are buying’
A TEENAGER who died after taking a
suspected ecstasy tablet at Leeds Festival had just received “fabulous” GCSE results, his family said.
David Celino, 16, from Worsley, Greater Manchester, is believed to have taken a pill that contained MDMA on Saturday night at the three-day event.
He soon became unwell and was taken to the medical tent on the site at around 10pm, before being taken to hospital where he died on Sunday, West Yorkshire Police said. An inquiry into his death is under way. His family released a tribute yesterday. “Our David was a beautiful, fiercely independent and warm character who lived every day at 110 per cent and loved to spend time enjoying music with his friends,” it said.
“He had just received fabulous GCSE results, got into college, and had hoped to study computer science at a top university. Leeds Festival was the highlight of his summer; ultimately it was to take his life in the most unfair, cruel and horrible way, and we are broken.” West Yorkshire Police said it had not received any similar reports.
Assistant Chief Constable Catherine Hankinson said: “While the exact cause of his death is yet to be established, one line of inquiry is that he had taken a particular type of ecstasy (MDMA) tablet, which was described as a grey or black oblong shape. We are continuing inquiries on site and liaising closely with the event organisers.”
The organisers of Leeds Festival said earlier this year that they had been forced to delay plans to provide drugtesting facilities on site after failing to secure “sufficient support”.
The scheme is run by The Loop, a drugs safety charity, and allows festivalgoers to hand over a sample of their drugs to a tent for the substances to be tested.
They are told what their drugs actually contain, which the charity says often deters individuals from taking them. The sample provided is destroyed.
The charity is testing at eight other festivals this summer.
Melvin Benn, the managing director of Festival Republic, which organises the Reading and Leeds festivals, said in March that he had not received “sufficient support from Leeds City Council” and, “without adequate testing people don’t know what they are buying”. Council officials inleeds responded at the time by saying that no formal application had been made by organisers, but a discussion had taken place between Festival Republic and a group that advises on safety at public events.
Festival Republic said that it was “working closely” with police to help with their investigation and that they “take all reports of incidents where drug use is suspected seriously”.
Mr Benn said: “The safety and wellbeing of all our festivalgoers is always our absolute priority and we remind all festivalgoers that there is no safe way to take prohibited drugs and there are no safe prohibited drugs.”