11-Year old boy hangs self after row with family over whether he had stolen £10
Schoolboy Mathew Stollery took his dinner to his bedroom after a row with his family over the cash, which was given to him for good behaviour, his mum said.
But the 11-year-old football fan from Gillingham in Kent was found hanged in his bedroom in May and could not be revived despite the efforts of family and paramedics.
Mid Kent and Medway assistant coroner Scott Matthewson said he could not come to a verdict of suicide as it was not clear whether Mathew intended to end his life.
His mother Joanne added that Mathew, a 'popular and bubbly' boy with a passion for life, was looking forward to starting secondary school, and taking a trip to the London Aquarium in the summer holidays.
That's not the sound of someone that wanted to go and do what he did, she said.
Mathew loved life too much. That's why I think it's a horrible accident.
The coroner instead gave a narrative verdict detailing how Mathew had fallen into a bad mood on May 8 after being accused of stealing £10 the previous year.
He had taken his dinner up to his bedroom, the court heard.
Joanne had left the house to go on a bike ride, but received a call from her daughter just minutes later and raced back home, but sadly her son could not be saved.
Mr Matthewson said:
It's certainly a possibility that Mathew was cross and was trying to make a point in his anger, that he intended to be found, and that the reason he did what he did was to shock his family as a result of feeling rotten about the allegations and make them understand he was unhappy.
Nobody in the family could have predicted it.
The scene that played out in the house that evening was one that you would see up and down the country, and you would not expect to end in the tragedy this did.
Nobody is to blame. This in my judgement was a terrible accident.
Mathew lived with his mum and dad Mark Stollery, brothers Sam, 18, and James, 13, and sisters Hannah, 15, and Amy, 9.
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