OFFICERS have described how they frantically searched for a teenage boy threatening suicide after they were alerted by a comment he made on Facebook to a friend on the other side of the world.

Eleven police officers and control room operators were handed Chief Constable Commendations for helping to save the life of the 16-year-old Oxford boy in April.

The drama began at 11.30pm on April 1 when the youngster told a friend 3,000 miles away in Maryland, USA, he was going to kill himself while chatting on social networking site Facebook.

She told her concerned mother and the threat was passed via Maryland Police, a White House Special Agent, British Embassy in Washington to the Metropolitan Police and finally to Thames Valley Police.

By the time it reached Abingdon control room operators police had just a surname and school to go on.

They searched on Google and electoral register websites before narrowing his location to eight potential addresses in Oxfordshire.

Sgt Paul Sexton, who was acting Inspector for Oxford for the night, said police had knocked on three doors in a frantic attempt to find the teenager before he was found.

He said: “It was a race against time. We all worked pretty well together and it was team effort.

“I’ve been doing this job for 28 years and this brought a tear to my eye.

“We didn’t know what we were going to find. He could have been dead. I was so happy when I heard he had been found safe and well.”

The boy was found unconscious in his bedroom suffering a drugs overdose just two and half hours after he made his online comment.

His parents were at home at the time downstairs unaware of the drama. He was rushed to John Radcliffe Hospital where he made a full recovery.

Chief Constable Sara Thornton handed out certificates at Drayton Park Golf Club, near Abingdon, yesterday.

The winners were Sgt Paul Sexton, Sgt James Mather, Pc Peter Ciechan, Pc Matthew Hodgetts, all from Oxford Police, Pc Emma Birch, from Thame, and Pc Carl Pearson of High Wycombe. Control room operators Sgt Malcolm Taylor, Tamsin Carey and Joanne Spinks, based at Abingdon, Deborah Gilbert, of Kidlington, and Sharon Ovall, were also commended.

Chief Constable awards were also given to Oxford Pc Matthew Sulley for his bravery in restraining a woman from jumping off a bridge into traffic in Blackbird Leys on March 1.

PCSOs Jamie Howell and Leanne Moody were commended for helping to save the life of an unconscious 19-year-old woman in Cowley Road, Oxford, on January 21.

Pc Nicholas Lambert, from Bicester, was presented with a Certificate of Service to mark his retirement from the force.

mwilkinson@oxfordmail.co.uk