Teen’s tragic suicide after video goodbye

A TEENAGER took his own life aged just 18 after leaving a video message saying ‘it was time to leave’, an inquest has heard.
Ioannis KoliosIoannis Kolios
Ioannis Kolios

John Daniel Kolios, from Aspull, who was known to his friends by his Greek given name Ioannis, was found hanged at the flat he shared with girlfriend Kelly Nightingale on January 29.

Bolton Coroners’ Court heard that Mr Kolios and Miss Nightingale had a rocky relationship and they argued regularly which led to him moving out the day before his death.

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But his friend, Harry Edwards, told the court that he had taken Mr Kolios back to the flat on Scowcroft Street, Tonge Moor, on the Thursday but had left at about 4.30pm. He said that Mr Kolios had seemed fine when he left him alone at the flat and had called him later to see if he wanted to be picked up but Mr Kolios had declined.

But after his death several notes were found and two videos which Mr Kolios had recorded, the last of which was made at 6.13pm and showed him upset, declaring his love for Miss Nightingale and saying ‘it was time to leave and say goodbye’.

Area coroner Alan Walsh said: “I think something happened between 4.30pm and 6.15pm when the video was made which put him on the course that led to his death.”

Mr Kolios’ friends and family told the court that he had fallen out with Miss Nightingale the day before his death because she had gone to stay with a male friend in Stockport.

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Miss Nightingale said that he had been upset and jealous and they had fought about it on the Wednesday, but they had sorted things out by Thursday.

She said they had been messaging on Facebook throughout the Wednesday and at one point she had told him she liked the man she was going to see.

She said: “We had argued but we last spoke at about 6pm on the Thursday. It was a completely normal conversation. I told him I was coming home and he asked if there was any food at the flat.”

But Mr Walsh said: “I find it difficult to accept that it was a normal conversation bearing in mind the events of the previous 24 hours.

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“Ioannis had been upset that Kelly had gone to see a man and been told she liked that man. I am inclined to accept that whatever did happen at around 6pm caused him to make the video. That was the last communication between Ioannis and anybody else.”

Mr Walsh concluded that Mr Kolios’ cause of death was due to hanging and that he had intended to take his own life.

Mr Kolios’ mum Elaine Wrigley told the court that he was a happy person and had seemed really positive when she last spoke to him in the morning on the day he died.

Paying tribute to him after the inquest she said: “He was loved and is truly missed. We are all devastated.”

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