Vulnerable students urged to seek help following suicide

12:46pm Saturday 10th May 2008

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SENIOR UNIVERSITY staff are urging vulnerable students to seek help after a 21-year-old hanged himself in woodland while carrying out a photography project on wellknown suicide sites.

The reason Southampton Solent University student Christian Drane took his own life will remain a mystery, an inquest heard.

Mr Drane, who worked part-time as a barman at the Walkabout in the town centre, was found in woods in the Polygon area on March 16 by nearby residents who contacted the police.

PC Sam Weller told the inquest that he found a suicide note, a mobile phone and a wallet in Mr Drane's pockets.

The suicide note read: "To mum and anyone who cares, I have done something I can never forgive myself for. I am a bad person. I am sorry. I love you."

PC Weller said that his inquiries had found that Mr Drane had been conducting a project photographing suicide sites and during one visit he had been approached by a member of the public concerned for his wellbeing.

He told the inquest: "For a recent project he would visit sites people used for committing suicide.

"One site was in Bristol, a notori ous bridge where suicides happened quite frequently.

"He told a friend that when he was stood on the bridge a member of the public asked if he was all right and those sorts of questions."

Through the numbers on his mobile phone PC Weller discovered Mr Drane lived in Coventry Road, Southampton, and traced his family to Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

He said his friends all said they had no reason to think he was unhappy and his housemates said they had shared a pizza with him on March 15 but later that night had heard his door slam.

He told the inquest the suicide was "one of those unsolved mysteries".

Delivering a verdict of suicide, deputy coroner Gordon Denson said: "The reasons for his actions seems to be to all extents a complete mystery."

A Solent University spokesman said: "While at the university Christian showed no signs that he was unhappy or contemplating taking his own life - and he did not contact the university's support services.

"Indeed Christian was a bright and popular student, who was on target to achieve a 2.1 in his photography degree.

"His death has been felt deeply by his fellow students and lecturers."