The deaths of 7 young people from the same town
South Wales police are investigating a possible suicide chain after the seventh hanging of young people in Bridgend in a year. The seven dead are not known to have been close friends but several of them posted personal profiles on the social networking internet site Bebo. Police are worried that youngsters may consider it fashionable to have an internet memorial site and are killing themselves for reasons of prestige.
Last week 17-year-old Natasha Randall was found hanged at her home near Bridgend and a girl who is believed to have been her friend self-harmed a day later. Bridgend MP Madeleine Moon is to raise her concerns on Friday at a meeting of a focus group, which includes the police and the local health trust, schools and council.
Mrs Moon said on BBC Radio today she was increasingly worried by the appearance of so-called “memory walls” on networking sites like Bebo, where members leave messages to mark the death of a friend.
She is particularly concerned about the “false romanticism of the memory wall that seems to have set up on Bebo giving some sort of romantic idea of suicide and not conveying the huge tragedy and wasted lives.”
Those who killed themselves were:
Dale Crole, 18, who hanged himself at the Coney Beach funfair at Porthcawl, near Bridgend, January 2007
David Dilling, 19, a former classmate of Dale from Pyle, near Bridgend, who hanged himself, February 2007
Thomas Davies, 20, who had been at school with both Dale and David, and who was found hanged from a tree in David�s home village two days before his funeral, February 2007
Zachary Barnes, 17, of Wildmill, Bridgend, a friend of Thomas�s family, who was found hanged with washing line, August 2007
Liam Clarke, 20, a friend of Dale, found hanged in a park in Bridgend, December 2007
Gareth Morgan, 27, who knew Liam, found hanged in his bedroom, January 2008 New Wales
