The Lives Of Others...

Sixteen-year-old Ciara Witt witnessed her close friend Jack Gudge, 17, get hit during a fight with a group of men outside a Tesco Express store and cradled him in her arms as he died.

An inquest heard she had taken his death very badly, with one friend describing it as the 'last straw' in her troubled life.

It's an unedifying story....

Ciara disappeared on November 4 last year - the day after the funeral - and was later in the garage of her home in Bournemouth, Dorset.

Police had been called at 11.30pm on the day she went missing and officers arrived at her house at about 4am on November 5 but failed to look in the garage at that time.

It wasn't until 9.30pm that night that Ciara's body was found by a 15-year-old family friend.

Not the loft, this time? Well, I suppose that's progress.

The mistake was later compounded after investigating officers failed to remove vital evidence of the method used by Ciara to take her own life.

Ciara's grandmother Lesley Hartwell told the inquest how police left behind a section of the device the youngster used to end her life.

'I had to go in to remove it and I want to know why that wasn't done. It's disgusting.'

Sometimes, the lengths newspapers have to go to to avoid 'revealing the method of suicides' are ridiculous!

Dorset coroner Rachael Griffin said: 'I am very sorry that you had to experience that. It is unacceptable. You should not have had to do that.'

Addressing the police officers at the inquest Mrs Griffin added: 'That concerns me that you forgot to search the garage. How can you reassure me that won't happen again?'

Well, she can't hang herself twice, can she?

The hearing heard Ciara had some problems with her mood and had previously self-harmed and had been referred to CAMS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service).

But she became very low following Jack's death in July last year.

And how did her dear childhood friend come to shuffle off this mortal coil?

Jack died after falling to the ground and suffered brain injuries before going into cardiac arrest. Three men aged 27, 24 and 23 and a 15-year-old boy were initially arrested on suspicion of murder but police later confirmed no one will face criminal charges.

Ah! We can all read between those lines, can't we?

Hundreds of mourners attended Jack's funeral on November 3, where he was buried in a bright blue coffin designed to look like an Adidas shoebox. He had a flower arrangement spelling his favourite word 'Chav'.

Yup! We can see why there was no prosecution, but let's get the official record:

John Montague, senior district crown prosecutor for Crown Prosecution Service Wessex, said: "In order for the case to progress there has to be an unlawful act, I am of the view that we cannot prove that the actions of the 24-year-old man were unlawful. The decision was taken in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors."

Translation: 'It was self defence, the little scrote's mouth wrote a cheque his body couldn't cash'.