Boy took life days before exams

The grieving mother of a 15-year-old suicide victim yesterday said her heart turned to stone the day her son took his own life last June.

Caroline Winder was commenting on provisional statistics from the Co Clare coroner’s office showing a 21% increase in the number of suspected suicides in Clare, rising from 19 to 23 in 2012.

Ms Winder’s son William was the youngest to take his life, near the west Clare village of Miltown Malbay, just days before he was due to sit his Junior Certificate.