A London teenager has died after apparently taking ecstasy at an illegal rave. Daniel Spargo-Mabbs, 16, was a pupil at Archbishop Tenison’s Church of England High School in Croydon. He died on Monday after fighting for his life in hospital. Sixth form classes were cancelled at the school — a comprehensive known for its Christian ethos and high academic standards — as teachers and pupils tried to come to terms with the news.
In a statement released yesterday, headmaster Richard Parrish said “our school and the world is poorer” without Daniel.
He added: “Sometimes you hope that the worst thing won’t happen. Sometimes it does happen anyway. And on Monday it did.
“We began Monday knowing that Daniel Spargo-Mabbs, one of our Year 12 students, who has been with us in the school since Year 7, was in a critical condition on a life support machine. At lunch-time he died.
“It is too soon to do anything more than react to the brutal fact that we have lost Daniel. Our students and pupils will be supported in whatever way possible, with a room set aside with our assistant chaplain for those who need space to grieve away from the classroom.”
Daniel’s older brother Jacob also went to the school, which has 760 pupils, and took A-levels there last year.
Russ Spargo, another family member, tweeted on Sunday: “Dan’s only 16 fighting for his life. Went to a rave, took Ecstasy. V bad reaction. He’s fighting for his life.”
On Monday night he wrote: “Man down... Bless him Dan died about 12.50. We’re all shell shocked.”
Yesterday, in reply to a message of condolence on Twitter, he wrote: “thank you for reaching out. It’s too surreal. Ghastly. Dan was lovely. This is hard but there’s much still to be grateful for.”
A spokesman for the Met police said they were called by the ambulance service at 4am on Saturday to reports of an unconscious male at an illegal rave on an industrial site at Pump Lane, Silverdale Road, Hayes.
He added: “The 16-year-old boy was taken by London Ambulance Service to a west London hospital believed to be suffering from the effects of a drugs overdose. He was later transferred to a central London hospital where he died on Monday. “A post-mortem examination will be held in due course.
Officers from Hillingdon are investigating the death.” Police shut down the rave and there have been no arrests.