Girl, 13, hangs herself after becoming obsessed with Emo 'suicide cult' rock band
by ANDREW LEVYLast updated at 08:45 09 May 2008
A girl of 13 killed herself after becoming obsessed with a fashion which links death with glamour, an inquest heard.
Hannah Bond hanged herself from her bunk bed with a tie after becoming an "Emo".
Emo fans wear dark clothes, practise self-harm and listen to "suicide cult" rock bands.
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'Everything to live for': school student Hannah Bond hanged herself not long after showing her father the cuts on her wrists as part of her 'emo initiation'
Two weeks before her death, she started following U.S. band My Chemical Romance.
One of their songs contains the lyrics: "Although you're dead and gone, believe me your memory will go on."
Hannah, described as a model pupil, had started cutting her wrists but told her father it was part of an initiation into the Emo fashion.
Heartbroken: Ray and Heather Bond told the court their daughter had told them emo was 'just a fashion'
Coroner Roger Sykes said yesterday that Hannah's death was "not glamorous, just simply a tragic loss of a young life".
Hannah's mother Heather told the inquest she had researched the trend since her daughter's death.
"There are websites that show pink teddies hanging themselves," she said.
"She called Emo a fashion and I thought it was normal."
She added: "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."
Hannah's father Ray, a karate teacher, said: "Two weeks before, I saw the cuts. I asked her about them and she said it was an Emo initiation.
"She promised me she would never do it again."
Hannah gave her name as Living Disaster on her page on social networking website Bebo.
The page is decorated with a picture of an Emo girl with bloody wrists after slashing herself.
Another picture shows a child's exercise book scrawled with the words: "Dear Diary, today I give up. . ."
The inquest in Maidstone, Kent, heard Hannah had been with her boyfriend at a friend's house on the evening of September 22 last year.
She had been angry when she was told she was not allowed to sleep over and when she got home in East Peckham she went straight to her room, saying: "I want to kill myself."
The inquest was told Hannah had not used drugs or alcohol before her death but Vanessa Everett, her head teacher at Mascalls School, said self-harm had become commonplace among other Emo fans.
Recording a verdict of suicide, Mr Sykes said: "The Emo overtones concerning death and associating it with glamour I find very disturbing."
?The Emo phenomenon began in the U.S. in the 1980s. It is a largely teenage trend and is characterised by depression, self-injury and suicide.
Followers wear tight jeans with studded belts and wristbands. Their hair is dyed black and worn in long fringes to obscure their faces.
Emo - from the word emotional - is a reference to the angst-filled lyrics and melancholy themes of the rock music central to the culture.
One of the foremost of these "suicide cult" bands is My Chemical Romance, from New Jersey.
Their first single, Welcome to the Black Parade, from the album The Black Parade, was released in 2006 and became a huge hit, going to number one in Britain.
The concept album follows the story of a character called The Patient, who dies of cancer.
The Black Parade is a nickname for the place where Emo fans believe they will go when they die.
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Guys, give me a break. The bands didn't do anything to influence kids to do!
My Chemical Romance shouldn't be blame for this. The band is completely against self-harm and suicide.
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Music is not and has never been the reason behind self harm or suicide. I know from experience. People embrace music and the related subculture because it gives them a sense of camaraderie. Self harm is a method of calling out for help and it should have inspired more than a simple inquiry.
- Emily, Seattle, WA, USA, 07/5/2008 22:55