A 13-year-old boy hanged himself in the grounds of a Northern Ireland children's home as an act of bravado, a coroner ruled today.
Ciaran McCavana was a resident in the Flaxfield Children's Home in the grounds of the Lagan Valley Hospital in Lisburn, Co Antrim when he killed himself in July last year.
Coroner Suzanne Anderson told a Belfast inquest that to record a finding of suicide she had to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that he had intended to take his life.
Ciaran McCavana (13) on the evening of his death by self-strangulation
Despite being told the teenager had previously threatened to kill himself, she said she had doubts he had intended to take his life.
She said he may have been trying to impress two teenage girls who were residents of the same home and he may have been disorientated and confused as a result of sniffing aerosols.
The inquest heard that Ciaran had been placed in the home some months after his parents separated because he was beyond parental control. It was revealed the teenager - who died four days before his 14th birthday - had been in and out of court and custody.
His father, also Ciaran McCavana, told the inquest that before Social Services put his son into the home he had been staying out late and skipping school.
"He got involved in a lot of petty crime, assault, stealing, smashing windows and robbing shops," said Mr McCavana. He had also been smoking and sniffing aerosols, he said.
He had last seen his son three days before his death when he had accompanied him to court with his social worker.
The inquest was told that on the day of the boy's death he and two girls also resident in the home had been playing "cat and mouse" with the staff, constantly disappearing and going into Lisburn, and going out in the early evening to watch a band parade despite being told not to.
On the evening of July 8th Ciaran and the two girls had gone out into the grounds of the Lagan Valley Hospital, Ciaran taking a sleeping bag and half a dozen aerosols he had got in the shops earlier.
One of the girls said in a statement read to the inquest that when she warned Ciaran about sniffing aerosols earlier that day, he said: "I don't care what happens to me, no-one cares about me."
She said Ciaran had talked about hanging himself previously and was high at the time when he pulled the string out of his sleeping bag and put it around his neck. He then put the string around the handle of a door between two garages and sat down pulling the cord tight, she said.
"He looked at me and smiled as if to say 'goodbye'."
The two girls ran back to the home to find staff and raise the alarm. Staff unsuccessfully tried to untie the cord and resuscitate him but they were to no avail, the inquest heard.
PA