May 8, 2008 11:04

Emo music attacked over teen suicide

Genre blasted again after 13 year-old 'emo girl' commits suicide

An inquest in Maidstone has heard that Hannah Bond, a 13 year-old girl from Kent, committed suicide by hanging herself - and emo music has been blamed.

Roger Sykes, the coroner who gave the verdict of suicide yesterday (May 7), suggested that the fact that Bond was an obsessive fan of such music was linked to her death.

The inquest heard that Bond had discussed with friends the "glamour" of suicide, and was obsessed with American band My Chemical Romance (pictured). She had a picture of an emo girl with bloody wrists on her Bebo page.

Bond's father Ray explained that his daughter had had an episode of self-harm prior to her suicide, which she told him was an emo initiation ceremony.

Her mother Heather Bond, also provided some background on her interest in the genre explaining: "There are [emo] websites that show pink teddies hanging themselves. She called emo a fashion and I thought it was normal. Hannah was a normal girl. She had loads of friends. She could be a bit moody but I thought it was just because she was a teenager."

However as he gave the verdict of suicide, coroner Sykes criticised the genre saying: "The emo overtones concerning death and associating it with glamour I find very disturbing."