Suicide victim’s mother calls for stiffer sanctions on teen drinking

Date Published: 22-Oct-2009

The distraught mother of a 16 year old boy who hanged himself after being illegally served a large quantity of alcohol in a pub in Co Galway has appealed for more severe penalties to be introduced to deter publicans from selling drink to those who are underage.
At a sitting of the Coroner’s Court in the city, the victim’s mother said her child did not intend to kill himself but that he was “so full of vodka” on the night of October 26, 2008 that he didn’t know what he was doing.
Accepting the medical evidence that the young man died due to asphyxia, Galway West Coroner Dr Ciaran McLoughlin concluded the young man returned home from a night out and “for some reason which we will never know, took his own life”.
In an emotional statement at the conclusion of evidence to the inquest, the teenager’s mother spoke at length about her “gentle giant” son, whom she said was 6ft 4in tall, weighed 17 stone, but was still afraid of the dark.
Referring to all the plans he had made for his future, she said her son had no intention of killing himself and that if he had wanted to do that, he would have used one of four shotguns which he could have accessed in the family home.
Instead, when he arrived home he went to the family shed to hang himself from the ceiling. He was only four inches off the ground when he was discovered by his stepfather.
“He had no more intention of doing this, he was the happiest young fella, so full of life and plans. He didn’t realise the danger he was putting himself in and that he could die. Because he was full of vodka, he didn’t realise he could die,” she said.
The pub in which the young man and a number of his friends – all of whom were underage – were served on the night he died was prosecuted in the district court recently and received a fine of over €3,000 in addition to being ordered to close for seven days. The inquest heard the victim had bought and drank three pints of Budweiser, one pint of Bulmers and three ‘007’s (double vodka, orange juice and white lemonade) that night.
The victim’s mother said she had spoken to a number of doctors since she lost her son about the relationship between suicide and binge drinking and the fact that serotonin levels can drop dramatically with alcohol and induce suicidal thoughts in otherwise happy young people.
“I talked to a lot of doctors on the relationship between suicide and binge drinking. One young man every weekend [dies like this]. One doctor said that if those few minutes in [son’s name] life had passed and he had gone to bed, he would probably have never thought of doing this ever again,” he said.
“To me, the root cause of this was alcohol – spirits in particular. This is the end result, [son’s name] is gone,” she added.
Referring to the prosecution and penalty incurred by the pub where her son was served, she said her son had been born in Florida and if his death had occurred there, the pub in question would have been closed permanently and charged with manslaughter.
“The most the law here can do with the pub is fine them less than €4,000. That to me says that in the eyes of the law, that’s what my child’s life was worth – less than €4,000,” she said.