Another teenager found hanged in Bridgend

A 17-year-old boy from an area blighted by apparent young suicides was found hanged, police said today.

The teenager, named locally as Rob Scott Jones, was discovered near the tennis club in the Newbridge Fields area of Bridgend at 10.30am on Sunday.

Since January 2007, 24 young people in or from Bridgend county are believed to have killed themselves.

A South Wales Police spokesman said: "Officers were called to a report of a sudden death of a 17-year-old male in the Bridgend area.

"The death is not being treated as suspicious and a file is being prepared for the coroner.

"The family has asked not to be contacted by the media and would appeal for privacy at this difficult time."

The police spokesman said while there were similarities between recent sudden deaths in the county, there was no criminal link.

"In the event of a sudden death, we will investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident, our primary aim being to determine whether or not the death is suspicious," said the spokesman.

"When a sudden death is not treated as suspicious, it means that any form of criminality has been ruled out, but officers are duty bound to continue to collate a file of evidence for a coroner to use at an inquest.

"It is the coroner who is required to consider any form of evidence that is not criminal, and at an inquest, in establishing the cause of death, the coroner is empowered to make recommendations based on the individual circumstances of each case, which may focus on issues that are the related to other parties.

"There are clearly similarities between recent sudden deaths in Bridgend, but South Wales Police can confirm that our investigations have by no means uncovered any criminal evidence that links them.

"It would therefore be inappropriate to comment any further in relation to this particular incident as any non criminal matters are for the coroner."