Bridgend suicides 'not part of cult'

Police insisted yesterday that the suicides of two cousins from Bridgend are not linked to 14 similar cases in and around the Welsh town over the past year.

They also dismissed suggestions that the latest deaths were part of a cult spread via the internet. Detectives said the cases of Nathaniel Pritchard, 15, and Kelly Stephenson, 20, who both died on Friday, were being treated as "non-suspicious".

The police inquiry came as Welsh Assembly politicians appealed for calm. Labour Assembly member Carwyn Jones said: "The idea that there's a link here, or an internet cult, is absolute nonsense... people are angry about the way the town has been portrayed."

Nathaniel was found hanged but still alive at his home in the Cefn Glas area of Bridgend on Wednesday night. He died on Friday. Kelly was later found hanged in a bathroom, hours after being told her cousin was "unlikely to pull through".

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