I can't stay in here, prison 'suicide' boy wrote to mum

Adam Rickwood was just 14 when he died behind bars

Adam Rickwood was 14 when he was found by staff at a juvenile detention centre hanged by his shoe laces from a curtain pole.

The vulnerable teenager, who had a history of self-harming and was a regular cannabis user, had tried to take his life on a number of previous occasions.

Yesterday, an inquest was told of the emotional letter to his mother and father, in which he said he could not bear being away from home.

The note, written in black ink in his tiny cell at Hassockfield secure training centre in County Durham, 150 miles from his home town of Burnley, read: "I can't stand it in places away from home. I need to be in my own home and my own bed.

"It's either that or I'm going to crack up. I can't be away from my home and I won't be, trust me. I can't last much longer. I will end up trying to kill myself and this time I will probably succeed.

"I need to be at home. I will end up taking my own or someone else's life but either way it will happen, believe me. I can't stay."

Adam's mother wept as she spoke of the warning signs that went unheeded before his death in August 2004.

Carol Pounder claims the various agencies involved in Adam's care were aware of his fragile metal state and previous suicide attempts and yet did nothing to prevent him from taking his own life while on remand.

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Click enlarge to read the letter

Mrs Pounder, 38, told the inquest at Chester-le-Street, Durham, that he had taken seven overdoses between November 2001 and October 2003 and on two separate occasions he was admitted to hospital having cut his wrists.

When he was sent to Hassockfield on July 10, 2004, after appearing at Burnley Magistrates' Court on a charge of wounding, a report from social services allegedly failed to mention details of his self-harming.

Mrs Pounder said she visited her son at the secure unit 36 hours before he killed himself and noticed that he was unusually subdued. His eyes were downcast and he was biting his nails.

She tried to raise his spirits, chatting about an impending bail hearing that might see him released, and telling the troubled youngster that he would soon be home.

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Grief: Adam Rickwood's mother Carol Pounder in front banner calling for justice for her son

The next day, August 8, Adam was involved in an altercation with a member of staff at privately-run Hassockfield, which caters for 58 inmates.

He later phoned his solicitor, Lyn Slater, and told her that he was being bullied and believed a Hassockfield employee had broken his nose while restraining him.

Mrs Pounder then phoned Hassockfield and was told her son had been restrained by means of a "tweak" to the nose. He was now fine, she was informed, and did not want to speak to her, the hearing was told.

In the early hours of the next day Mrs Pounder was told by police that her son was dead. The youngest of four children, he had gone off the rails at the age of 11 after the deaths of two grandfathers and a grandmother, Mrs Pounder told the hearing.

Gill Rigg, director of children's integrated services at Lancashire County Council, told the inquest: "Adam was a vulnerable young man who was very troubled and that manifested itself in a whole range of ways but I would have thought he was not at the most severe end of the scale."

The inquest continues.

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