- A teenage fainted and died after hitting her head when
shown images of mutilation and deformity in a best-selling style magazine,
an inquest was told yesterday.
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- Odette Coulson, 14, lost consciousness as a magazine
showing pictures of human grotesques was passed around by school friends.
She collapsed and hit her head on the concrete floor of the cricket
pavilion
at Ripon Grammar School, North Yorkshire, in April.
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- The impact fractured her skull and she died of brain
injuries 20 minutes after arriving at Harrogate District Hospital.
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- A coroner said he could not rule out the possibility
that the sight of the images had contributed to her death, and emphasised
the importance of understanding that people reacted differently to such
images.
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- Odette was among 15 or 20 pupils standing on the steps
of the pavilion during the lunch break when FHM, a top-selling magazine,
was passed around. One witness, who cannot be identified for legal reasons,
said: "We were all flicking through it and looking at odd pictures.
Some were quite gruesome.
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- The inquest was told that Odette, an only child, who
moved to Yorkshire with her parents five years ago, was a sensitive girl
who had fainted during a biology lesson while watching a video film of
people being injected.
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- The magazine feature, called The Carnival of the
Grotesque,
invited the reader to celebrate the culture of circus freaks. Its entry
on the FHM website says: "Feast your eye on freaks, fools and
foulness.
It lays out pictures of "some of the foulest and finest specimens
around, including a "penis-contorting Indian and a "two-mouthed
man.
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- Odette,s parents, Andrew Coulson, 48, a veterinary
surgeon,
and his wife, Arlene, also 48, of Sharow, near Ripon, called for greater
editorial control of material that could be read by teenagers. They said
that Odette, who loved art and played the flute, could not tolerate even
a biology class dissection.
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- Mr Coulson said that unsuitable material such as that
in FHM was too readily available to children. "The content is
obviously
being produced to gratify somebody, somewhere, but it is the responsibility
of people who provide and sell these magazines to make sure they do not
fall into the hands of children. FHM is not a top-shelf adults-only
magazine
it can be bought by anyone."
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- John Sleightholme, the Harrogate coroner, recorded a
verdict of accidental death. He ordered that the four teenage witnesses
should not be identified so that the person who handed the magazine around
the fourth-year class would remain anonymous.
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- He said: "In no way do Odette,s parents wish any
young person to be pilloried for bringing that book into school. The hope
is that others, who might be tempted to do so again, may think of Odette,s
death before they take such action.
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- Alan Jones, 54, the head teacher of Ripon Grammar School,
said: "There was no way at all we could have known the grotesque
contents
of the magazine in question. It was a very tragic incident.
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- Two years ago FHM published a guide giving instructions
on how to commit suicide. The feature showed a man with a gun to his head
and gave marks out of ten for different methods.
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- A spokesman for FHM said yesterday: "We are
immensely
saddened by Odette,s death and extend our deepest sympathies to her family.
We are constantly reviewing the editorial content of FHM within the context
of the magazine,s target audience, which certainly does not include either
14-year-old girls or boys.
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