Detectives were still continuing to probe the mystery death of teenager Richard Jackson found lying in a puddle.

Police revealed today that they carried out a post mortem on the 16-year-old, but the results were inconclusive.

His shocked friend told the

Oxford Mail how he had found the teenager's body face down in a muddy copse with his trousers partially down.

The 25-year-old man - who wished only to be known as Mark - contacted police immediately when he discovered his friend in Angel and Greyhound Meadow off St Clements.

"It was just the way he was lying there, with his face all muddy.

"It looked as if he had been raped and left there to die," said Mark.

Oxford police immediately sealed off the area and scenes-of-crime officers conducted a fingertip search of the muddy area.

Police said that the boy's parents were believed to be separated and his name was withheld for 24 hours while arrangements were made to break news of the tragedy to Richard's mother. Mark said he had known the teenager for about eight weeks after the youth started living at the Bridge Project on Iffley Road.

"Richard had fallen out with his family at Chipping Norton and was trying to sort himself out. He was a quiet, shy lad who wouldn't hurt a fly," said Mark, who has lived on the streets for a number of years.

And he denied that the youth had been involved in either drugs or the gay scene.

He said: "I know that Angel Meadow is a well-known gay haunt, but there's no way we were involved in anything like that.

"We just used to hang out, drinking a few cans."

On Friday afternoon, the two friends had been talking about travelling around Europe.

"Richard said he had always wanted to travel and I've been to Italy, Spain and Germany before," added Mark. "We had a few drinks and then I went off to get some food. He said he wanted to stay a bit longer and then I returned to find him dead."

Story date: Monday 01 February

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.