Attacker's release led to boy's suicide
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Your support makes all the difference.A 14-YEAR-OLD boy killed himself after discovering that a man who had indecently assaulted him was being released early from prison, an inquest was told yesterday.
Andrew Olden learned that Kevin Woods, 33, was being freed eight months before the end of an 18-month sentence. The teenager disappeared from home and was found six days later hanging from the roof of a disused bakery near where he lived.
The inquest at Merthyr Tydfil, Mid Glamorgan, was told that Andrew was being teased by other youngsters in his village about Woods's release.
His mother Susan said her son was plagued by thoughts of Woods getting early parole. 'I believe this had a grave and traumatic effect on my son. We were aware that this man was due to be released. He would not discuss it. He just bottled up his feelings,' she said in a statement.
Woods, of Abercwmboi, Mid Glamorgan, was jailed for 18 months in August last year. The former male nurse had lured Andrew into a house to carry out indecent assaults.
He was released from jail after 10 months. Eight weeks before he was freed, Andrew hanged himself.
Andrew, the youngest of four children, was a pupil at a residential school for children with behavioural problems at Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan.
Social services had arranged a home for him with foster parents. 'While Andrew had behavioural problems at some time in his life, a lot of those were exacerbated by the criminal proceedings,' Philip Walters, the coroner, said.
Mr Walters recorded a verdict that Andrew killed himself while the balance of his mind was disturbed.
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