Student, 23, hanged himself on graduation day after not telling his parents he’d failed
A 23-year-old student reportedly killed himself at home on the day of his graduation, according to an inquest heard in Maidstone Coroner’s Court on Thursday. The student, identified as Nicholas Turner, returned to his family home in Tunbridge Wells in Kent, just before summer this year. He came to the house after completing a three-year degree in mechanical engineering at Southampton University.
Turner, a former student of Tonbridge School, however, did not tell his parents that he had failed his degree and instead told them that he had gotten a 2:1. Reports state that the graduation ceremony was scheduled to take place on July 23, and his parents were getting ready for the event along with him when the tragedy occurred.
Turner's body was found by a neighbor who spotted him hanging outside his parents' house shortly after 7am. The inquest, at the court, was told Turner did not appear to be distressed the night before his death and had made dinner for his family.
The 23-year-old's father said that he only became aware that his son had failed the course after his demise. "He had taken on quite a challenging course in his education but had always done well or appeared to do well," the father said, according to the Mirror.
According to Detective Sergeant Brian Smith, Nicholas' body was spotted by the neighbor from an upstairs bathroom and then later by a passing pedestrian.
Coroner Geoffrey Smith, while addressing the inquest, said: "Nicholas was a young man on the threshold of his life. He had finished university, with a degree or not, he appears to have kept the exact nature of certain parts of his life from his family. It is not for me to speculate."
The coroner concluded the inquest with a verdict of suicide and said that he did not know whether the main factor of Turner's death was guilt of failing.
