Abisai Pembere a Zimbabwean schoolboy in the United Kingdom threw himself in front of a train after his parents told him he was too young to go on holiday to Greece with his friends, an inquest heard today. A report by the British Daily Mail newspaper said Abisai sneaked out of his house after his father, Peter, and mother, Tsi, had gone to bed.
He then took a taxi to the station and hurled himself at a passing express train travelling at 90mph, clipping the side of it and suffering massive head injuries. The sporty 16-year-old A-level student had reacted ‘calmly’ after being told he could not go on holiday with his friends.
His actions were so unexpected that when emergency services called his family to inform them he was in hospital they said he could not be – as he was in his bedroom. It was only when they checked and found he was not there that they realized the truth.
Abisai clung to life for three days but eventually died of his injuries on January 20, three days before his 17th birthday. Passer-by Aiton Clarke had found the schoolboy lying seriously injured on the platform at Langley, Berkshire, moments after he was hit by the 10.42pm First Great Western London Paddington to Didcot service.
Recording a verdict of suicide, Berkshire Coroner Peter Bedford told the inquest in Windsor, Berkshire, that the family had decided hours earlier that he could not go abroad with his friends.
‘On January 13 he asked about going on holiday with some of his friends. As a loving son he needed the approval of his family,’ he said.
‘I think the decision was deferred to the weekend and on Sunday 17 there was a discussion and he was told you could not approve the trip and he was only 16.’
Mr. Pembere, who brought the family to the UK from Zimbabwe in 2004, said his son did not seem disappointed.
‘He did not argue. We expected there to be some more discussion but he never said anything but you could see by his reaction that he was not happy,’ he said.
The teenager, who had one brother, was on the family computer ‘as normal’ when his parents went to bed. They woke up when the emergency services rang and said Abisai was in hospital.
Mrs. Pembere, a company director, said: ‘We said (to the emergency services) that he was in his bedroom – we rushed in to his room and then it was we realized he was not there.’
Abisai had taken a taxi to Langley station, four miles from the family home in Maplin Park, Slough, and thrown himself in front of the train. His pals had already paid a deposit for him to go on the holiday. Mrs. Pembere added: ‘He was a very kind and loving person. We don’t know what was really going on in his mind.
‘I wouldn’t expect him to do such a thing. It was his birthday coming which he had been talking about so much. He was looking forward to driving lessons and he had so many plans for the future.’
Coroner Peter Bedford said that the decision not to allow Abisai to go on holiday with his friends had a big impact on the 16-year-old.
‘The only issue which makes any sense is the disappointment which to a 16-year-old maybe in greater perspective that we can understand,’ he said.
‘There is the additional issue that one of his friends may have paid a deposit for him. He may not have been that surprised but he is a 16-year-old boy.
‘We think he should have understood that but to somebody of his age it might have proved more difficult to accept.
‘It seems to me the most likely explanation was the holiday; the reactions – sneaking out after mum and dad have gone to bed and then the incidents described by the train driver allow me to conclude that the only logical explanation was he decided to end his own life.’ Daily Mail.co.uk
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