Archie Battersbee's death ruled accidental despite 12-yr-old receiving disturbing voice note
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM: The coroner overseeing the inquest of the tragic death of Archie Battersbee has concluded his death as accidental. The 12-year-old boy was found unconscious on April 7, 2022, at his family home in Southend-on-Sea and died in August 2022 after a legal battle between his parents and London's NHS hospital where he was treated.
The coroner stated that there was no supportive evidence to show that Archie did an online challenge as claimed by his mother Hollie Dance. She requested the Essex Police to investigate her son's phone to find any evidence of him being involved in any online challenge. However, an investigator reported that there were no images or videos on the young boy's phone that showed him taking part in any challenge.
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What is the cause of Archie's death?
Based on the judicial inquiry, Lincoln Brookes, the Senior Coroner for Essex explained that a decision has to be made relating to the evidence and conveyed that neither he nor the police could not "rule out the possibility" of the challenge as evidence. BBC reported that Archie's medical cause of death was determined as an unsurvivable catastrophic hypoxic brain injury.
Outside the court, Dance stated that she found that the outcome "was correct" and added that the family now requires time "to grieve." The mother said that she would still continue to fight online bullying.
MEAWW previously reported that Dance and her family members have been facing "online trolls" and also received abusive messages. "The whole idea of raising awareness from day one, even when we weren't 100% sure what Archie had done, was to raise awareness to other parents to prevent something from happening again," she said.
"I think we have done that, despite the fact we've been trolled so heavily, it's been worth it. I do think we have saved children's lives," Dance added while she expressed that she wanted Archi to be fondly remembered as a "fun-loving, very energetic" boy.
'Heated exchange of bravado'
From the inquest conducted in Chelmsford, it was revealed that Archie was sent a disturbing voice note saying that his mother wanted to abort him. He received the voice note just days before he was found unconscious in his home.
"Oi Archie, do you know why you're angry? Because your mum wanted you to be an abortion," said a young male voice in the message sent to Archie on April 3, 2022, according to Det Sgt Tiffany Gore's statement to the inquest officers.
"You and your mum are the ones sat there all night using," said a second audio received on the same date. In a second young male voice, "a number of voice notes" of a "heated exchange" from 15 February 2022 were found. The conversation that contained threats was characterized as a "heated exchange of bravado," reported BBC.
As per the inquest, though Archie's phone had TikTok, the investigators were unable to determine whether he has watched any online challenges or any content that contained suicidal thoughts. The police concluded that there were no internet searches that could confirm searches on online challenges.