and investigated in the coroners' courts of justice
International Symposium organized by APEAS and MAE - 6/7.10.2014
Dangerous Games, Violence and Bullying
Knowing,
understanding, preventing
How does the print media report death
by hanging in teens, which types of motives are suggested, what do
coroners say at the hearing, after months of inquiry as required in
case of violent death in the UK ?
I will tell you about a certain category of victims, those children and teenagers experimenting on their own and who sometimes do not make it back. I use the term "experiment" on purpose as it is clear that they are not playing. The goal, within the group, is to faint and have a laugh seeing a mate fainting, whereas, when alone, it is the opposite, the goal being precisely not to faint. If all police officers called on crime scenes were aware of this, they would more easily spot hints and sometimes a whole set of clues showing that the deadly fainting was feared.
Why and how did I gather data (references here are limited to year 2008) on these children who did not play ? Out of compassion certainly and wish to understand also. About the how, Anglo-saxon newspapers, thriving on minor news (the French "faits-divers"), interestingly report coroner's inquest hearings while publishing stories on the Web. In the UK, the practice called in France "jeu du foulard" (scarf game) and known in the US as the chocking game is almost unheard of, in other words does not really exist. Therefore popular newspapers do not fear to violate a social taboo when reporting that a teenager was found dead after hanging him/herself. Who would think that maybe the victim did not want to die and that this was not a suicide attempt ?
The media unfortunately seems to have more short-term memory than working memory. Indeed the fainting game (as they called it then) was reported by many newspapers in 1999 when one of his schoolmates found Nicholas Taylor with a belt around his neck while the other end was tied to the door handle of his room at Eton, the nursing ground for the British elite. This tragedy shook all those who were close to it to their core as no one could believe what had happened. Robert Wilson, coroner in the East Berkshire, claimed that after having sat in this court for 28 year he thought he had heard it all and he wondered how naïve he could have been to not imagine that strangling practices could take place among boys who were the best of the best of the British society and probably much smarter than the average. Robert Wilson recorded a verdict of death by misadventure. No one however was able to answer the question from now on bound to haunt him : why ?
This case was so disturbing that it was finally agreed on considering it an exceptional occurrence explained by the very fertile imagination of Eton boys.
As far as data collecting is concerned, I worked in an empiric manner, searching for keywords in Google in order to receive relevant alerts by e-mail : found hanging, narrative verdict, misadventure, choking game, prank, bunk bed, belt, etc. This way I gathered information about around 270 cases between 1999 and 2014. Of course this is not an exhaustive figure. Until 2004-2005 a few red tops such as The Daily Mail and Evening Standard published stories about strange deaths by hanging on the Web as the impact of The Guardian, BBC News and semi-broadsheets like The Telegraph was still discreet.
In the United Kingdom when an unexplained death case surmises with no apparent cause whether anticipated or natural – even if this non-natural term is not legally defined – a coroner is appointed and the inquiry is led under his orders. These legal officers appointed by legal authorities are usually lawyers, sometimes doctors, with at least 5 years of experience. They are never full-time coroners, it is an occasional activity taking place on the side of their professional practices.
Coroners have specific tribunals which do not depend on the Common Law. This Anglo-saxon accusatory procedure implies that the claimant as well as the defendant establish with their own lawyers their version of the facts, each on his side. The judge and the jury then decide on the best and most convincing narrative. In France and in other European countries where an inquisitorial procedure is in use, a judge is appointed with an inquiry at the end of which he decides to sue or not, depending on the evidence and elements that he gathered. This is how coroners proceed as well. They work like investigating magistrates, interrogate witnesses, the victim's friends and family and investigate the victim's activities, trying to find out how the victim viewed him/herself and the world and also how the world viewed the victim, in order to understand what happened and to be as close to the truth as possible. But the coroner's goal is to shed light on facts, not on faults. In France, there is a comparable procedure for suicides, the psychological autopsy. This is still at a very early stage of development.
The coroner's investigation is public and usually lasts several months. It ends on a hearing where everyone is invited to show up. The victim's life is retraced, the coroner might allow relatives to question the witnesses. No one is incriminated and the final verdict is not without plea. But it is very rare to see an appeal. A symbolic page is turned, the social fabric is resown after having been torn in order to achieve a sort of perennial serenity.
During the year 2008, in the United Kingdom, 16 girls (4(1)-20, 13 cases with a median of 15 to 16 years old) and 25 boys (8-25, 16 cases with a median of 13 to 14 years old) seem to have died because of hypoxia-searching practices. There is no evidence as to the “male” majority, some elements point to the fact that girls might be more cautious.
Twelve boys (8-13) died during a tragic accident, a prank that went horribly wrong, due to imitation or in mysterious circumstances. About Joshua (8), coroner Andre Rebello, contrary to the press which claimed suicide, recorded a verdict of misadventure since the victim put himself in this situation whereas nothing indicated that he took his life on purpose. The narrative verdict as in the case of Sam (13), is a verdict by default, used when what happened isn't accurately known although evidence excludes suicide. Coroner Alan Crickmore described the occurrence without explaining it or drawing any conclusion as he could not determine if the victim's actions were intentional or experimental. But those precise words allow us to think that the coroner believed he knew what Sam had done. This particular investigation lasted for more than a year and the parents opposed the verdict – which is exceptional. Then they launched a campaign, as they were convinced or wanted to believe that their child was bullied and pushed to commit suicide, even if the investigation pointed to no such conclusion.
Sometimes, like in Jordan's case (13), the coroner can be rather explicit. The evidence available to us point to a game that went wrong, stated Nigel Chapman, a doctor – although the description of the game, with no further details, is reduced to the fact that it went wrong.
Generally speaking there is no comparison between the coroner's words, sometimes enigmatic as if they wanted to warn people while simultaneously sparing them, and the newspaper headlines where being spectacular seems to be more important than giving an account of reality.
Among the thirteen boys between 14(1) and 24 years old who supposedly killed themselves because the girlfriend was away or there was a suicide epidemic, because of (non-confirmed) bullying or incomprehensible circumstances, coroner Thomas explicitly ruled out suicide in the case of Rupert (14) while the press explained this tragic suicide by saying that the father was fired from the BBC eight months before. The coroner simply observed that it was an accident, death was not intentional and was unwanted. Moreover he had considerable doubt from what he knew that a boy of just 14 years would have really known that what was to happen could cause his death.
The headlines in the press tell that Ryan (17) had just driven into a wall with his granddad's car and then concluded, as if it was the normal course of things, that he then rolled a dog lead around his neck and tied it to a window latch. Coroner David Hinchliffe plainly stated that he was not sure whether it was the car or not, but reckoned that Ryan had obviously got himself upset about something. He recorded a misadventure verdict and added the following statement showing that he had not been fooled : it may be that he, like many people, did not realise that if you put pressure on your neck you will be unconscious within seconds and beyond help within minutes.
Regarding the four girls from 4(1) to 13, victims of an accident, of (uncorroborated) bullying or in spite of being very popular, there is Hannah's case (13) whose death is attributed to a variant of the gothic trend, the Emo (from “emotional”) hardcore movement. Despite the lack of note alluding to the act, usually sufficient to be sceptical about the suicide hypothesis, coroner Roger Sykes considered that this very young girl committed suicide. Nevertheless I retained this case because the (uniform) tie tied to the bunk bed is one of the most usual means in solitary experimentation.
Paige (4) had done exactly the same thing the day before. Her father, who found her half-strangled by her hair-band tied to a hammock for soft toys and had to cut the knot with scissors, thought this was the result of clumsiness. Was it ? The second time the little girl was found too late. Because of the victim's age, and despite the fact the child seemed to know what she was doing, coroner Rachel Redman cautiously concluded on an accident.
Among the twelve girls between 14 and 19 whose deaths were justified by the media through treason or silence of boyfriend, sleepwalking episode or copycat activity, the case of Emily (15) illustrates what an open verdict is : ruling insufficient evidence for suicide verdict. The press related her death to her parents' separation. Coroner Andrew Bradley noted that suicide was not excluded but the will to die was not expressed and he had serious difficulty reconciling a 15-year-old's appreciation of death and self-killing. Emily was in a boarding school. Her mother was scandalised that she was not being watched every quarter of an hour. The coroner did not share her opinion.
The case of Georja (15) is disturbing as this young pre-Olympic athlete had just won a gold medal when she was found in semi-suspension. According to coroner Christopher Johnson she died as a result of suspension by her own hand, but he cautiously recorded a narrative verdict since the question of intent remained unclear.
In Bridgend, in the south of Wales, a mysterious series of (25) deaths by hanging worried the population between 2007 and 2008. There again, whereas the media speculated on copycat suicides, coroner Andrew Haigh remarkably recorded a narrative verdict regarding the cases of Jenna (16) and Natasha (18). This verdict, that excludes suicide, indicates that the act was not an accident but that the nature of its motive remained undetermined.
Indeed the regulatory principle of the coroner's investigation demands to establish beyond any reasonable doubt that the victim was aware of the consequences of his or her acts and wanted these consequences to happen.
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