My special boy never meant to kill himself

Jul 19 2004 By Mary Murtagh, Daily Post

A SCHOOLBOY from Liverpool hanged himself after a row with his family over a mobile phone bill.

Nathan Escoffery, 14, (pictured), stormed off to his bedroom after being told off for using up his mother and sister's phone credits.

An hour later, he was found hanging in his bedroom in their Allerton home, last Tuesday.

His mother Karen Escoffery said: "He was always on the phone talking.

"It was an everyday argument.

"Nathan got a cob on and went upstairs."

Mrs Escoffery, who works in customer services for Vodafone, said she thought he had fallen asleep and went upstairs to call him.

She heard their dog Smokey scratching at Nathan's locked bedroom door and opened it with a screwdriver.

She said: "I saw him hanging.

"I thought he would say, 'I am only messing'.

"But he didn't move at all and I knew he was dead.

"I screamed for Nadine, his sister, to come and help me get him down.

"We got him on the ground, and then the bed, and then the ambulance came."

"Nathan was a very special boy and I miss him so much.

"It was a tragic accident. "He did it to give us a fright." Nathan, was a former pupil at Shorefields school, in Dingle Vale, but moved to Elimu Academy, Toxteth.

He had been planning to go out with his friends later that day and had all his clothes laid out to change into.

Nathan was the youngest of four children with brothers Karlos, 30, Curtis, 22, and sister Nadine, 15.