'Jump’ —and youth did
NZPA-AP London A mentally ill teen-ager had leapt to his death from a multistorey car-park while being urged to jump by a crowd below, “The Sun” reported yesterday.
The onlookers had chanted, “jump, jump” as Michael Childs, aged 18, stood poised on the fifth floor of the car-park, the paper said. The police in Luton, Bedfordshire, tried for two hours to talk to Mr Childs, but he finally plunged to his death.
One man in the crowd was arrested and charged with breaching the peace. A police spokesman called the jeering crowd “callous idiots.” “Michael was well known to us because he had a history of mental disturbance,” the spokesman said.
“We have talked him out of suicide several times in the past but we couldn’t stop him this time.
“The crowd was not drunk, they were just making fun of what turned out to be a terrible tragedy.”
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Press, 10 January 1984, Page 8
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153'Jump’—and youth did Press, 10 January 1984, Page 8
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