THE reason why a 14 year old boy died on a climbing frame in his back garden with a rope around his neck may never be known, a coroner was told last week.

A police investigation into the death of Jake Corner on September 7 2021 was unable to conclude whether it was an accident, suicide or a cry for help, an inquest heard on Thursday (February 9).

The investigation left many questions about Jake’s final hours unanswered and assistant Gloucestershire Coroner Roland Wooderson told the teenager’s uncle – and legal guardian – Peter Corner that he was sorry the tragedy remained a mystery.

The Gloucester inquest heard that Jake died on the first day of the new school year – a day that had begun normally with Mr Corner setting off for work while Jake left the house at about the same time to catch the school bus.

Jake was reportedly looking forward to getting back to school and appeared happy that morning.

Later, however, police discovered when checking the home CCTV footage that Jake had for some reason not gone to school – he was seen returning to the house and then moving around in the back garden of his home in New Road, Bream, for a period of several hours.

At one stage a blue rope appeared in the back garden and when Jake was later found dead by his distraught uncle on his return from work the same rope was around the boy’s neck.

The inquest was told that, tragically, Mr Corner, who had been Jake’s guardian for almost 10 years, had forgotten to take his mobile phone to work that day so he did not receive messages from the school saying that his nephew was absent and asking for an explanation.

The coroner recorded a narrative conclusion to the inquest, saying “On September 7 2021 Jake’s uncle found him lying on the ground in the garden of his home. Jake was found not hanging but lying with his neck trapped between the rungs of a rope ladder and with a rope around his neck.

“Having investigated matters, the police could not say whether an accident occurred, Jake took his own life, or whether it was a cry for help that went wrong.

“There is no suggestion of any third party involvement. I am sorry there are no more answers at this inquest.”

Mr Corner said after the inquest that he thinks Jake, who he believes suffered from undiagnosed ADHD, had died by accident and had no suicidal intentions.

He said he was dismayed that when the school got no reply from him on his mobile phone it did not try to contact him at work or by other means. If he had known sooner that Jake had not attended he would have gone home to check on his nephew and the tragedy may have been averted, he said.

In his statement to the inquest, Mr Corner said he left home at 7.27am that morning to ride to work and he saw Jake heading off to catch the bus to school at Five Acres, Coleford.

“I realised as I was riding to work that I had left my phone at home,” he stated. “When I got back at 4pm I checked the postbox and saw that Jake had been looking through the post. He was waiting for a computer monitor cable to arrive and I thought maybe he’d been looking for that.

“I got a text from the school at 4.56pm about something to do with Jake not having the right equipment for something. It was not a text to say he had not been to school that day.

“But then I noticed further text messages and an email to say he had not attended.

“I phoned the school to say I didn’t know where he was. I saw that I’d also had five missed calls from an unknown number between 7.36 and 7.38am. I believe that was probably Jake wanting to inform me that he had missed his bus.

“I saw I had also missed a phone call from the school at 10.45am.

“I sent Jake a text to ask him where he was but got no answer. Then I started to search the garden. That’s when I saw him under the climbing frame.

“I shouted and asked him what he was doing - at first I thought he was playing around. I saw that he had a rope around his neck - I unwrapped it and started CPR.

“He was not responding and I called for help. A neighbour came round in response.

“Jake had been happy that morning and was really happy to be going back to school. Usually, he would only miss school if the bus did not turn up.”

Mr Corner also said that Jake had self harmed in the past and there had then been an opportunity for him to have counselling at school but after a few sessions he ‘didn’t want to see them any more.’

The inquest heard that a post mortem found that Jake died from the effects of hanging.

Detective Constable Alastair Parker, who investigated the tragedy, said: “This is an extremely sad case whereby a young child has died and we may never understand what took place that day in the garden of his home.

“Peter Corner looked after his nephew with dedication and love.

“I cannot say, having reviewed all the material and having spoken to a number of people who knew Jake whether he took his own life, a terrible accident occurred or it was a cry for help that went wrong.”