Crowd Urged Suicidal Teen To Jump

Police have criticised a crowd of people who encouraged a suicidal teenager to jump from a shopping centre car park.

Shaun Dykes, 17, died after he fell from the site on the roof of the Westfield shopping centre in Derby on Saturday afternoon.

The teenager, a student at Heanor Gate Science College, climbed over a railing on the top level of the shopping centre's car park at 2.30pm on Saturday.

A group of onlookers gathered to watch while trained negotiators spent three hours trying to coax him down.

Witnesses said the mob taunted Shaun, who lived in the Derbyshire village of Kilburn, and shouted: "Go on then, jump."

Students from Shaun's college were nearby and heard the goading, according to his headteacher Rob Howard.

"One student told me he could not believe people place such little value on life. It's almost like they are in a television show. It's unreal," Mr Howard said.

"The sad thing is that a couple of the students, if they could have got close enough, felt that they could have made a difference. It's very traumatic."

Police condemned the onlookers and added that their presence did not help their attempts to save Shaun.

"We are disappointed that people decided to stop and watch, and some people decided to pass comments," a Derbyshire Police spokesman said.

"According to one of the police officers involved it was a small minority of people who were saying things. There's really no specific offence if people were passing comments."

The spokesman added that police did not know what had been troubling the youngster.


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