Matthew Arnold schoolboy's death a 'cry for help'

Ricardo Tique, who was 16 when he took his life in August, had struggled with his emotions, and sometimes got ‘angry and upset’.

In a statement at his inquest yesterday morning, his parents said he changed his music when he was feeling sad but on that fateful day nothing seemed to be wrong.

He told his mum he was going out for a walk with a girl friend from school.

But moments later he sent the girl a picture of a wooded area in Oakwood Way, Cumnor.

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Matthew Arnold School in Botley. submitted pic

His school

The social media app Snapchat automatically deletes photographs unless they are saved, so the coroner Darren Salter said the message's meaning was ‘just speculation’ and could have been for ‘attention’.

Ricardo, who went to Matthew Arnold School, was found by a family picking blackberries in the wood, who immediately dialled 999.

Within minutes police officers were giving him CPR until paramedics arrived.

His worried parents called his phone several times to see if he was okay.

His dad said that sometimes it was hard to call Ricardo when he was listening to music because he would put his phone on battery-saving mode.

Eventually, a police officer answered and told them that he was at the hospital.

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He was put in intensive care but two days later was pronounced dead.

A post-mortem examination revealed that his cause of death was a 'hypoxic brain injury' and asphyxiation.

Mr Salter, the head coroner for Oxfordshire, said that for a verdict of suicide he must be satisfied that the person did the act themselves and had intent to end their lives.

However, because Ricardo was only 16 and sometimes struggled with his emotions, the coroner said it could have been impulsive rather than a more well-reasoned decision. He had previously told friends he ‘wanted to end his life’ but it ‘isn’t an uncommon thing’ for people to say.

Mr Salter gave a verdict of 'misadventure', a conclusion ‘slightly different to accidental’.

Accidental verdicts are accidents that resulted in death, however a verdict of misadventure describes a deliberate act going wrong.

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