News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

LAURELVALE, with its neat gardens and tree-lined streets, seems like any other rural village - but look closer and you will see that its residents are gripped by fear.

Terrified parents have put their teenagers under a strict curfew or have arranged supervised activities. Others are monitoring their children's mobile phone messages and banning all use of the internet.

One scared mother has even confiscated her children's dressing gown cords - fearful of what sinister use they might be put to.

This rising tide of panic has been caused by an inexplicable "suicide epidemic" that has hit this previously unremarkable area near Portadown, with a population of just 800, in Northern Ireland.

In the space of a month, three 15-year-old schoolmates have killed themselves.

It is believed that all three, who were friends and pupils at Craigavon Senior High School, made identical knots in their hoodies to hang themselves. All the deaths happened at the weekend.

The first victim in this sinister series of suicides was Wayne Browne - a taxi driver found the boy's body hanging from a lamp-post on Sunday, May 20.

Three weeks later, in the early hours of Saturday, June 9, a 15-year-old schoolgirl discovered James Topley hanging from the exact same lamp-post. Then last Friday, Lee Walker was found hanging from his bunk-bed by his father.

The village is still in a state of collective shock and incredulity, at a loss to make any sense of the deaths, which police are still investigating - the boys themselves had seemed happy enough and no suicide notes were found.

The lack of any reasonable explanation has given rise to wild and sinister speculation. One of the more grisly rumours doing the rounds, which could have come straight out of some twisted horror story, involves a mystery motorcyclist who rode into town, asked for the boys by name - then weeks later they all killed themselves.

A more recent one involves talk of an internet 'death list' of 12 local youngsters, including two girls, naming the day each will die.

This chilling list, which nobody has seen - and which the police are unable to "confirm" or "deny" exists - allegedly warns those unlucky enough to be named: "If you don't do it, somebody's going to do it anyway for you... you're going to die anyway."

There is also whispered talk of suicide pacts, Ouija-board sessions and a list of names hidden under a park bench, each one ticked off as those named die.

Such rumours have only cranked up the tension in Laurelvale even more. And as each weekend approaches, fear is palpable in the air.

Craigavon Senior High School principal David Mehaffey warns: "No one knows the truth behind these tragedies, but there are so many different rumours that most of them have to be wrong. These rumours are contributing to the build-up of something that borders on hysteria in the community."

One mum, who has a 10-year-old girl and a son aged eight, admits: "We are all petrified. You're supposed to look forward to the weekend but now we dread it, wondering who'll be next.

"I hardly sleep and when I do I wake up with butterflies in my stomach and run to check that my children are safe in their beds. I've even taken their belts off their dressing gowns, I am so scared."

Another worried parent says: "I keep phoning my 17-year-old to make sure she's OK. All the boys who died were friends of hers - she went to three funerals in a month in the middle of her GCSE exams.

"It's even more scary because the kids in the village predicted that somebody was going to kill themselves on the night Lee Walker died.

"We don't know what's going to happen next - it's like living in a horror movie."

The horror is certainly real for the bereaved families and friends. The schoolgirl who found James Topley is having counselling to help her deal with the trauma.

Yesterday her mother told how her daughter, neither of whom wish to be named, went to primary school with Wayne and knew Lee, too.

"This has been a very big wake-up call - we have to do something for the teenagers," says the girl's mother, adding that parents are arranging evening activities for their children in an attempt to prevent any further deaths.

Dorothy Browne, the mother of the first suicide victim, is still in shock over her son's death. Wayne worked part-time in a local restaurant and was looking forward to becoming a full-time chef. He lived at home with his parents and his sister Zoe.

Dorothy says: "I last saw my son when he went off to work and he said, 'Don't come for me Mammy, one of the chefs is bringing me home'."

But Wayne never came home. After spending a few hours with his workmates, he killed himself.

Dorothy, a psychiatric nurse, says: "I would have noticed if something was wrong. I'm flabbergasted.

"He'd been on the internet but had stopped using it a few months ago. He used to be on it for three hours a night. His sister told me the computer was broken - I didn't think anything of it. Now I wonder was there another reason for that?

"I just don't know. That's the thing about suicide. Wayne seemed happy and I didn't have any reason to be worried about him."

But she concedes that Wayne might have been more badly affected than anyone realised by the death of a neighbour in March - Stuart Fletcher, 28, hanged himself from a tree opposite the Brownes' home.

Certainly Michelle Cully, the mother of Lee Walker, is adamant that her son was deeply affected by the deaths of his friends when he took his own life.

"Lee was sad after James's death," says 38-year-old Michelle. "I asked him if he wanted to talk about it and he said no. Then he went to James's grave. He told me he'd been there and I said, 'Nothing is so bad that it can't be sorted out'. And he said, 'I know'."

Lee was found by his 43-year-old dad, Tony Walker, who cradled his son in his arms after trying desperately to revive him. Tony pleads with other youngsters not to "put other families through the unbearable pain his family is going through".

As well as parents keeping a tighter rein on their children, the local police have stepped-up their nightly patrols. But they can't watch all the people all the time.

If parents are afraid, so too are the children, as they frantically text and email one another to ask if their name is on the 'death list'. One teenager, who has been told his name is on the list, yesterday talked about how "paranoid" he has become since the three suicides.

"I got a phone call from a mate saying the word on the street was that I was on the list," says the 17-year-old, who did not wish to be named.

"I'm not going to do anything like that, but after hearing the rumours about you dying anyway it has worried me.

"The other day I saw two men wearing black hoodie tops at the bottom of my lane, they were swinging a red light back and forward and standing by a blacked-out car.

"They were there for at least an hour. Seeing that really freaked me out. These rumours have really messed me up."

But the boy dismisses suggestions that the three schoolboys who died had made a suicide pact.

"Wayne did it, then James and Lee were devastated and just couldn't handle it," is his explanation. "That's all there was to it."

Another 17-year-old boy says he spent days trying to convince his family and friends that he was not about to kill himself.

Someone had phoned his home when he was out and asked his mum if he was dead. The same boy also received texts from friends begging him "not to do it". The following day, his mother received a condolence card. False stories of his death are said to have begun circulating after a dummy was strung up, sparking fears that there had been yet another suicide.

Reverend Brian Harper, who has talked to eight of the boys on this so-called 'death list', admits, "There is panic within the community.

"Children are getting text messages saying they are next and that is getting their parents frightened and annoyed.

"It's just cruelty. I don't think the list exists but somebody is being very cruel."

This is a wider problem. Northern Ireland has experienced an epidemic of suicides since the end of the Troubles - they exceed deaths from road accidents. Last year 291 people in the province took their own lives - 10 years ago the figure was 138. Most of the victims were young males.

It is something that even the experts are at a loss to explain.

Psychologist Dr Arthur Cassidy, who is helping to counsel the village children in a mobile caravan unit, says: "It is very strange. We don't understand what is causing it and I don't rule out the internet.

"There could be a number of other factors, including drug abuse and low self-esteem."

Amid all the uncertainty, one thing is for sure - until the people of Laurelvale are convinced it is safe to do otherwise, they will be keeping their children close by.

SEQUENCE OF SUICIDES

Sunday, May 20 - in the early hours, a taxi driver finds Wayne Browne hanging from a lamp-post.

Saturday, June 9 - in the early hours, a 15-year-old girl comes across the body of James Topley hanging from the exact same lamp-post.

Friday, June 15 - Lee Walker is found by his father Tony, hanging from the bunk bed in his bedroom.