Upset over A-levels led to suicide

First Edition

A SIXTH-FORMER found hanged hours after hearing her A-level results killed herself, an inquest decided yesterday.

The Norwich coroner, James Hipwell, said 20-year- old Charlotte Thompson's disappointment at her grades was the reason for her suicide, and he criticised the exam pressures on young people.

Mr Hipwell said: 'Youngsters appear to be evaluated nowadays only on the basis of A-level grades as opposed to their own characteristics, personalities and abilities.

'These pressures were not there generations before. I can see no reason other than disappointment at the A-level grades she had received for her suicide.'

The coroner said it was a tragic irony that the grades were unlikely to have stopped Charlotte, of Northrepps, north Norfolk, from following the career she had planned in physiotherapy. She needed three Cs and had achieved a B, a C and two Ds.