Coroner gives mixed verdicts on Welsh youngsters' deaths
LONDON (AFP) — A coroner recorded verdicts of suicide Wednesday for two young men out of 17 people who apparently took their own lives in and around a small Welsh town, triggering intense debate.
But coroner Philip Waters, concluding inquests on five of those who died, said he could not be sure exactly whether the other three youngsters wanted to kill themselves.
The Bridgend area of south Wales has been in the spotlight in recent months after 17 people under the age of 27 were found dead -- 16 of them by hanging, and one who was hit by an oncoming train -- over the course of the last year.
With so many deaths, and close family and friendship connections between them all, press speculation suggested the existence of a suicide pact -- although that has been rejected by police -- amid concern about young people's welfare in the region.
Police and psychologists have also warned that media coverage of the string of deaths could have influenced unstable or depressed people.
Waters recorded suicide verdicts on Jason Williams, 21, who was found hanged in his garage on August 23 last year, and Andrew O'Neil, who was found hanging at an empty house.
The coroner heard that Williams was painfully shy and introverted and there was "no apparent reason" why he would take his own life. He was told O'Neil was being threatened before his death because he owed money.
He recorded narrative verdicts -- essentially a description of how and when they died -- on Allyn Price, 21; Leigh Jenkins, 22; and 27-year-old Gareth Morgan.
All three were found to have taken drugs and/or alcohol before their deaths which may have impaired their judgment, Walters said.
Jenkins was found dead about four weeks after his friend Price, while Morgan was upset after splitting from his girlfriend, the hearing was told.
Walters said before the hearing that he hoped the events in the area "if they have done anything, they have been the catalyst to give us a national strategy covering the whole of Wales for young deaths".
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