Heartbroken teen told ex he was going to kill himself; Inquest hears final internet chat ended with suicide threat.(News)

Byline: Lauren Taylor

A TEENAGER was found hanged shortly after telling his ex-girlfriend he was going to kill himself, an inquest into one of the latest youths to die in Bridgend's apparent suicide cluster heard yesterday.

Nathaniel Pritchard, 15, had been in a relationship with the girl for eight months but it had recently ended, the inquest in Merthyr Tydfil was told.

Nathaniel, of Ystrad Fawr, Cefn Glas, Bridgend, had been in Bridgend town centre with his sister Mellissa on February 13, Detective Inspector Jason Redrup said. In the early evening, he had a conversation with his ex-girlfriend on his computer, using instant messaging service MSN, and she told him she was seeing another boy.

Insp Redrup said Nathaniel ended the conversation by telling the girl to go off with her new boyfriend, adding, "I'm going to kill myself and it will be your fault."

The inquest heard that Nathanielwent to his bedroomin the loft of the house. When his ex-girlfriend called him on the telephone a short time later, his younger brother Connor took the phone upstairs, where he found him hanged.

Nathaniel's parents cut him down and he was taken to the Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend, where he was put on a life support machine.

He died on February 15, the same day his cousin Kelly Stephenson was found hanged while on holiday in Kent. An inquest into her death was opened and adjourned on Thursday.

Bridgend Coroner Philip Walters said the provisional cause of Nathaniel's death was multiple organ failure and hanging.

Earlier this week Nathaniel's parents appeared at a police press conference, blaming media reporting for what happened to their son.

An inquest was yesterday also opened into the death of 16-year-old Jenna Parry, who was found hanged in Cefn Cribbwr on Tuesday. Her death brought the total number of young people from the area thought to have killed themselves since January 2007 to 17.

Insp Redrup said Jenna, who had also recently split from her partner, had a history of self harm and had previously attempted to take her life at least twice by attempting to take overdoses.

Insp Redrup said, "She had recently split from her boyfriend and found it difficult to accept that. She struggled to rekindle the relationship."

He addedthat Jenna had been taking cannabis and prescribed drugs. Hanging was given as a provisional cause of death.

Both inquests were adjourned to be concluded at a later date.

Meanwhile, it also emerged yesterday that online memorial pages dedicatedto theBridgend teenagers have been closed to prevent the possibility of copycat deaths.

The tribute website Gonetoosoon.co.uk said that it was removing the messages posted in memory of the youngsters.

The website allows people to set up a memorial page for a loved one with information about them and a photo. People are invited to view the page and to leave their own message of condolence. The site, created two years ago, hosts 25,000 memorials.

In recent weeks the site has been popular for parents and friends of the apparent suicide victims. The site's creators said they had to act responsibly following the 17 recent deaths in the South Wales borough.

Terry George, who founded and created the site, said, "There's been lots of speculation that some of these suicides could be related to the glamorisation of people having websites in the event of their suicide.We justwantedto err on the side of caution if there was any possibility whatsoever that this could be anything to do with it, thatwe didn'twant tobe condoning it. I don't feel that we're glamorising the dead, we've never had a situation like this before."

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UPSET Nathaniel's parent's Sharon and Vincent Pritchard; FOUND Nathaniel Pritchard was found hanged at his Bridgend home by his brother Connor