'Occult' boy guilty of lover suicide plot

Fishermen rescued the girl from rocks at Aberystwyth

A 15-year-old boy said to be obsessed with death and the occult has been convicted of trying to persuade his girlfriend to commit suicide.

The teenager - who cannot be named for legal reasons - had denied the little-used charge of attempting to procure suicide.

Swansea Crown Court heard on Friday how the girl - also unidentified - fell off a jetty at Aberystwyth onto rocks 25 feet below.

Killer Charles Manson was an idol of the boy's

She was knocked unconscious and suffered serious facial injuries.

Her life was saved by two fishermen who carried her to safety just as the incoming tide was about to wash her away.

A judge will hear legal submissions before deciding on a date for sentencing.

Earlier in the trial the jury heard that the teenager had researched the life of mass murderer Charles Manson.

The court was told that how after his girlfriend had jumped into the sea, he walked home and waited an hour and a half before calling an ambulance.

Fascination

Paul Thomas, prosecuting, told the court that the accused teenager had a fascination with death, suicide and serial killers.

At school he chose to do a project on Manson, the cult leader serving life in the US for his part in the gruesome 1969 murders of Hollywood actress Sharon Tate - the wife of film director Roman Polanski - and four others.

It was at school that he met his girlfriend who went onto become lovers.

On 29 January this year they went to his home during the lunch hour, where she drank "a great deal" of Tequila.

He told her that her life was "crap" and that she should be free.

She then apparently wrote a suicide note.

Mr Thomas said although the note was in her handwriting it had been dated and timed by the boy.

The pair then walked to a jetty on the seafront of Aberystwyth, where the boy pushed her towards the edge.

He threw one of her boots into the stormy sea and shouted: "Fetch", the court heard.

Last thing

Mr Thomas said the girl remembered him physically pushing her towards the edge.

The last thing she remembered was him behind her.

But she did not recall being pushed off, so the prosecution case cannot be that he actually pushed her off himself, he added.

She suffered head and brain injuries and was in a coma for several days. She also had a fractured cheek and thigh.

Her boyfriend, the court was told, later had a shower before telephoning two school friends who persuaded him to call for an ambulance.

Mr Thomas warned the jury it was "unusual charge, and, on any view, an unusual case".

He said it did not matter whether the boy actually pushed her off the jetty - he had actively encouraged the suicide bid.

Police discovered the youth's bedroom wall was covered in graffiti such as "Dead women don't say no", "To watch you bleed turns me on" and "99 ways to die" - which he used as his email name on the internet.

The wall also sported a dedication of his life to Satan and a promise to do as much evil as possible.