Sale of 'suicide book' criticised

Teenager Sarah Cherry read the book before committing suicide

A coroner is asking the online retailer Amazon to stop selling a book about suicide after the death of a 19-year-old Lancashire woman.

Preston coroner Howard McCann made the appeal after the death of Sarah Cherry, from Penwortham, who killed herself after reading it, an inquest was told.

"I was shocked that such a book should be readily available," said Mr McCann.

But Amazon said removing the book because its message was "repugnant" amounted to censorship.

A spokesman for the company said: "Our goal is to support freedom of expression and to provide customers with the broadest selection possible so they can find, discover, and buy any title they might be seeking.

Not promoted

"We leave it up to our customers to decide what they wish to read.

"While we do not censor items from our web site, Amazon.co.uk does not promote these kinds of titles.

"If a title is banned we would of course immediately remove it from the Amazon.co.uk website."

Mr McCann said the book would provoke more complaints if it were displayed elsewhere.

"I would strongly suspect that if you were to see this book on display, let's say in high street retailer, there would be objections from the majority of members of the public that such a book should be on display and indeed sold," he said.