British teenager hanged in ‘prank gone wrong’

A 16-year-old boy is thought to have accidentally hanged himself in what his family described yesterday as a “prank gone wrong”. Joshua Twigg was found hanging from a rope swing by his two brothers as they returned to the family home in Tangley Walk, Havant, Hampshire, on Monday evening.

The teenager’s mother, Rizi Matthew, 43, said she believed her son had intended to carry out a joke on his brothers, 18-year-old twins Danny and Ben, by putting the rope around his neck as they returned home.

But she said she thought he might have tripped, causing him to accidentally asphyxiate himself.

She told the Portsmouth News: “He knew his brothers were due to come down the pathway. “It was a practical joke gone horribly, horribly wrong. He was meant to go fishing the next day. He was not depressed. The twins are heartbroken, especially because they found him.”

A Hampshire police spokesman confirmed that the death was not being treated as suspicious.

He said: “Police were called around 10.45 p.m., Monday, May 23, to reports that the body of a teenager had been found in a park area near Tangley Walk, Havant.

“The body was later formally identified as that of Joshua Twigg, 16, of Tangley Walk.

“Police are not treating the death as suspicious and are preparing a file for the coroner.”