A POPULAR teenage boy who committed suicide in woodland had previously accessed the dark web and watched YouTube videos about a practice called ‘ego death’.

Callum Cooper, a Brockenhurst College student, was just 16 when he died.

He had been missing for 17 hours before his body was found in a secluded area by a dogwalker.

His legal guardian, Ray Adams, had found a “shopping list” of drugs on Callum’s iPad the day the teenager went missing.

At an inquest into the death, Mr Adams said he saw drugs including ketamine and LSD on the list.

“They looked like serious drugs to me,” he said.

When challenged at the family’s Ringwood home, Callum said he wasn’t taking the drugs himself, but had been “ordering them” to sell at college, the inquest heard.

The teenager also asked: “Do you think I’m destined to end up like my mum and dad?”

Mr Adams said he took Callum’s iPad and phone because he “couldn’t trust” the teenager not to order the drugs.

Callum then accompanied his guardian to Westbourne, where Mr Adams had an appointment.

However, when Mr Adams left the half-hour appointment and returned to his car in the Milburn Road Car Park, Callum had disappeared.

His body was discovered at 8.30am the following day in a secluded area off Prince of Wales Road, Westbourne, in December 2016.

The teenager, who studied art and design at college, had occasionally used magic mushrooms and LSD recreationally.

Police later found an app which would have connected Callum’s phone to the dark web.

In addition, officers discovered Callum had repeatedly watched videos about astral projection and ego death on YouTube.

Both involve the inducement of an out-of-body experience, with or without the use of drugs.

He had also searched for information about schizophrenia.

Richard Middleton, assistant coroner, recorded a conclusion of suicide.