Archie Battersbee's mum continues 'fight for justice' year on after son's death

06 April 2023 , 15:15

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Archie Battersbee with his mother Hollie Dance (Image: PA)

Archie Battersbee's mum has vowed to continue fighting for "justice" a year after her son was found unconscious at their home in Southend, Essex.

Hollie Dance found her 12-year-old son unresponsive on April 7 last year. He died four months later in hospital after his parents lost a legal battle with medics over the withdrawal of his life support.

Ms Dance, who failed to persuade appeal judges to overturn the ruling, has since asked the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to consider Archie's case.

Campaign group Christian Concern, which is supporting Ms Dance, said the committee had been in touch to say it would consider her "complaint".

Ms Dance said: "Nothing can now bring Archie back. But I am determined to continue to pursue justice for him and to hold the UK Government properly accountable."

Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him

Archie died in August last year (PA)

Mum Hollie with Archie in hospital (PA)

She complained that his rights as a disabled person were violated, reports Essex Live.

Earlier this year, a coroner concluded the boy died "inadvertently during a prank or experiment that went wrong".

Recording his death as an accident, senior coroner Lincoln Brookes said that although there was evidence of Archie experiencing low mood in the last 12 months of his life, there was no sign he intended to harm himself on the day he was injured.

Officers discovered Archie was in Whatsapp groups called "Help" and "I'm depressed", the court heard.

A forensic analysis of the boy's mobile phone also uncovered a number of messages dating back to 2021 in which he refers to experiencing low mood.

Archie was at the centre of a life-support treatment fight (PA)

In a WhatsApp exchange with his mum Hollie Dance last year, he told her: "Do you know how sometimes I think about self-harm. I bet you didn't. That's how harsh my depression is.

"Sometimes I want to end it and I think about how many people I would let down."

He later added "I just want to let go" and "just give up everything".

In a Whatsapp group chat in February, he told friends he rated his physical appearance as one out of 10.

He added: "That's why I'm so depressed all the time but I have tried and thought about killing myself."

Disabled woman paralysed after falling from wheelchair on plane walkway dies

However DS Tiffany Gore, who analysed the phone, noted that there was no evidence of a suicide note and he had been looking ahead and browsing online for a new coat on the day on the day he was injured.

"There wasn’t evidence he was in a low mood on that day," she told the court.

Matt Lee