Archie Battersbee's mother Holly Dance begs for 'time to grieve as family' after inquest conclusion
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM: Holly Dance, the devastated mother of Archie Battersbee, who died in August 2022, has now urged people to leave her and her family in peace as they “grieve” remembering him. She claimed that the family had been subjected to a large amount of online hate from people after the 2022 tragedy.
However, since a senior coroner has declared the 12-year-old's death to be an accident, Dance reportedly referred to it as a "right decision." She went on to say that the inquest gave her "some of the answers, but not all," and added, “It’s time to allow us as a family to grieve.”
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Dance also asked people to remember her son “as fun-loving, very energetic, one of the most talented children.” Dance’s comments came after the inquest into the pre-teen’s death concluded. Essex's senior coroner Lincoln Brookes said that the schoolboy “hadn’t intended to harm himself but had done so inadvertently during a prank or experiment that went wrong,” the Echo reported.
The coroner reportedly explained, “I think he did so without necessarily a good reason, 12-year-old boys don’t always have reasons. I think it may just be a case of curiosity – what does it feel like? This was an accident that went wrong, either a prank to shock his mum as she came out of the bedroom to find him doing something shocking or reckless, or just experimenting to see what it was like to do this.”
He shared, “It probably went wrong very quickly and very badly,” before adding why he discarded the suicide angle. He said, “It seems to me that while there were periods of low mood and very low mood during the previous 12 months, in the days preceding his death I haven’t received any evidence of that.”
‘I'm the proudest mum in the whole world’
Last year on 6 August, after Archie’s life support was taken off, Dance had reportedly said, “It's with my deepest sympathy and sadness to tell you Archie passed at 12.15 today. And can I just tell you, I'm the proudest mum in the whole world. Such a beautiful little boy and he fought right until the very end and I'm so proud to be his mum.”
One of the relatives of the child, Ella Carter said at the time, “He was taken off all medication at 10 o'clock. His entire stats remained completely stable for two hours until they reduced ventilation. Then he went completely blue. There is absolutely nothing dignified about watching a family member or a child suffocate [to death]. No family should ever have to go through what we’ve been through, it’s barbaric.”
Another person close to Archie's family added, “I hope you will all join me in sending love to Archies family and we will continue to remember him through the De Lick Kids Foundation in the days, weeks, and years to come. Fly high young man, you’ve touched the hearts of more people than you’ll ever know.”