A BRIGHT and popular teenager did not mean to hang herself in the early hours of Christmas Day, an inquest was told.

The coroner Roger Sykes said Amy Gilbert, 15, a pupil at Sittingbourne's Highsted Grammar School, was probably trying simply to frighten her parents after they had refused her permission to go to a nightclub on Christmas Eve.

Her mother found Amy hanged by a dressing gown cord from a light fitting in the bedroom of her home in Cecil Avenue, Sheerness, the inquest in Gillingham heard.

Her father, Terry, told the coroner: "She had a great future ahead of her. She did not seem any more upset than any other teenager and it is just totally unbelievable that this has happened."

Summing up, the coroner said: "There is no doubt in my mind that this was nothing more than a tragic accident.

"She had a minor falling out at the end of a convivial family outing on Christmas Eve because she was denied permission to extend her evening. As a parent I can entirely understand the reaction of her parents.

"She then behaved in a rather sullen and silent manner and had a fair amount to drink for a girl of her age.

"I do not believe she intended to take her own life because she would have had no understanding of how quickly she would go into unconsciousness when she started to hang herself.

"She may well have expected her parents to come in so she could have just frightened them over what had happened earlier."

Verdict: accidental death.

FULL STORY IN THIS WEEK'S SHEERNESS TIMES GUARDIAN