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Tragedy has struck a close knit community in the capital yesterday following the death of 16-year-old student Clara Hegarty.

WWN has learned that Clara, from the leafy Dublin suburb of Stillorgan, defied her father’s instruction not to wear ‘that thing’ for fear that she would catch her death.

The transition year student was later found frozen to a bus stop bench where she waited for friends, no less than 200 metres from the family home.

“If I told her once I told her a thousand times,” her father Noel told WWN, holding back the tears, “you know the last thing I said to her? ‘So that’s what passes for clothes these days, is it?’ and that was it, she was gone out the door”.

WWN understood Clara left her home at 6.30pm yesterday evening and was last seen wearing what she claimed passed for a skirt, but was ‘more like a belt’ and a top that her father pointed out could be ‘no bigger than a handkerchief’.

Thousands of Irish teenagers are believed to ignore warnings from their parents on the dangers of not ‘wrapping up’ in cold, mild or even warm conditions.

Clara’s mother Joanne hoped her daughter’s story would urge other girls to dress more appropriately for the weather.

“Our Clara thought she was invincible and we tried to tell her, but then we put it down to us being out of touch. When I think back now we regularly let her go out of an evening with her arse out for the world to see. This should never happen again,” the distraught mother told WWN.

Clara is not believed to be the first teenager to catch her death in that thing, but it is hoped this sad news will serve a warning to other teenagers.

Gardaí who were on the scene have sent out a warning to parents of teenage girls. “We see it everyday, going out in ‘that thing’ is a recipe for disaster with many teenagers taking their life in their hands. We urge parents to enforce the ‘below the knee’ and ‘no belly showing’ policy that has served us so well over the years.”

More to follow as we get it…