Bridgend suicide incidents

The Bridgend suicide incidents are a set of suicides involving young people in Bridgend County Borough in South Wales. Reports speculated that a "suicide cult" was to blame.^[1] As of December 2008, there have been twenty-four known deaths in or from Bridgend county since January 2007,^[2] though police have found no evidence to link the cases together. Of 25 people who killed themselves between January 2007 and February 2009, all but one died from hanging.^[3]

The parents of one of the dead accused the media of "glamorising ways of taking one's life to young people".^[4] Madeleine Moon, Member of Parliament for Bridgend said that the media were "now part of the problem".^[5] The mother of one of the deceased added: "We have lost our son and the media reporting of this has made it more unbearable".^[5]

Many of the suicide victims were teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17.

In the years between 1996 and 2006, an average of three men committed suicide in Bridgend every year. In 2007, the total was believed to be at least nine.^[6]

On 12 January 2010 it was reported that another two people had committed suicide in the town.^[7]

An article in People magazine reported that by February 2012 seventy-nine people had committed suicide by hanging "in the area". Most of the victims are young adults, but the age range is 13 to 41 years of age. In 2010 police asked the media to stop covering the suicides in an attempt to prevent copy-cats. Bridgend is a former market town of around 39,000 people; however, the suicides stretched over the whole county borough of Bridgend, which has a population of over 100,000.^[8]

A 2013 documentary^[9] and a 2015 drama film^[10] starring Hannah Murray (director Jeppe Rønde) have been made about these incidents, both called Bridgend.

References