A TROUBLED teenager who hanged himself did not intend to take his own life, an inquest heard yesterday. Shaun West, of Leach Road, Bicester, was discovered in the hallway by his carer Chipo Taruvinga, who called the emergency services on November 6 last year.
The inquest at Oxfordshire Coroners’ Court heard that 17-year-old Shaun, a student at college in Aylesbury, had a history of self-harm and was in care at the time of his death.
The court heard Shaun had chatted with Ellis Marsden, a former girlfriend, on Facebook at about 7pm on the evening he died and told her he wanted to join his father, who had committed suicide.
Consultant psychiatrist Ruth Gronimus said Shaun had attempted to hang himself at least three times in the past and said: “With regards to the timing of the incident and him knowing that staff would arrive at a certain time, it sounds like he hanged himself just around that time. Would he have hoped to have been discovered in that time? It is a probability.”
Jane Plummer, a mental health nurse, told the court: “He was a very charming, likeable young man.”
Deputy Oxfordshire coroner Nicholas Gardiner recorded a narrative verdict.
He told the inquest that he accepted Shaun had hanged himself but added: “I am less sure that he did so with the intention of taking his own life.”
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