Tributes paid to cliff death boy

Friends and family of Paddy Higgins have paid tribute to him

Tributes have been paid to a Berkshire student who died when he fell from a cliff in Cornwall.

Paddy Higgins, 16, a pupil at Forest School in Winnersh near Wokingham, was in Newquay celebrating the end of his GCSE exams.

He was pronounced dead on Tolcarne beach after apparently falling from cliffs in the early hours of Monday.

Nearly 2,000 people have joined a tribute group to Paddy on social networking site Facebook.

One message read: "You were there for everyone but now you're not, it seems so unreal."

'Super guy'

Another one said: "Paddy was a person who on the rugby pitch, no matter however much we were losing, would always put a smile on our faces and say 'Come on lads'.

"He was a super guy on and off the pitch and he will never be forgotten."

Mike Finnegan of Smugglers Haven Holiday Park said it was a terrible tragedy

John Quine, headteacher at Forest School, said Paddy was "a very gifted sportsman and hugely, hugely popular within his year group".

He told BBC News: "They're in complete shock. Several of them were down in Cornwall with the holiday group.

"We'd seen quite a lot of Paddy recently even though he had finished his exams.

"Monday last week was the induction day for the lads who wish to return to our sixth form. Paddy is very successful academically and Paddy was there.

"I happened to be walking around the corridor and Paddy came round in a fast walk, fairly typically two or three minutes late, but he just gave me a great big smile.

'Most engaging'

"And I have to say, Paddy has one of the most engaging, one of the most likeable smiles in our community."

Mr Quine said Paddy's father John Higgins has worked at Forest School for 25 years and many of the staff had known the 16-year-old since he was very young.

Police said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death but they have appealed for anyone who saw what happened to contact them.

Three teenagers have fallen from cliffs in Newquay in the past week

Paddy was the second teenager to die in a cliff fall in the resort in a week.

On 28 June, the body of 18-year-old Andrew Curwell was found at the foot of cliffs at Newquay's Great Western Beach.

The teenager, from Saddleworth in Greater Manchester, was on holiday with friends to celebrate the end of his A-level exams when he fell.

And last week another 16-year-old boy broke his neck and suffered a fractured skull in a fall from cliffs near the Atlantic Hotel. He survived.

On Tuesday, Devon and Cornwall Police issued a warning to teenage holidaymakers about the dangers of alcohol and high cliffs.