Latest Teesside headlines straight to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A popular young man stabbed himself in the chest after mistakenly believing the vest he wore was stab-proof, his inquest heard.

Jordan Easton was in the kitchen at one of his friend’s parents on August 23 last year - just five days after his 22nd birthday - when he turned a knife on himself.

Tragically, he suffered a chest stab wound and died at the University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton.

A police investigation was launched, but no further action was taken.

Jordan’s inquest, held at Teesside Coroners’ Court, heard that the 22-year-old, of Georgiana Close, Thornaby, had been out with friends when the tragedy occurred.

After going to the house of one of his friend’s parents, Jordan said he was wearing a “stab-proof vest”.

Teesside assistant coroner Karin Welsh said: “While in the kitchen, he took hold a knife to demonstrate it was stab-proof and sadly realised it wasn’t the case.”

Jordan was rushed to hospital, said the coroner, but “despite the best efforts of the medical professionals, they were unable to save him.”

His injuries were “self-inflicted,” she said, but there was no evidence he intended to harm himself.

Detective Superintendent Ted Butcher, from Cleveland Police’s major investigation team, confirmed various witnesses and Jordan’s family had been spoken to.

He agreed with the coroner’s assertion that “while Jordan may have had his issues in the past, he seemed to have settled down”.

And he confirmed that all the witnesses gave consistent accounts about what happened - subsequently borne out by toxicology and other reports.

Confirming the matter wasn’t taken any further, he said Jordan had died after “a boisterous act”.

Jordan’s devastated mum Alison Price told the inquest she found it “hard to believe the concept that Jordan would consciously do that".

She said: “It’s more possible if it was bravado, showing off in front of lads, but where a mother and a young girl were, it’s out of character for him. I can’t absorb it.”

The assistant coroner recorded a verdict of misadventure.

Saying a misadventure verdict was when a person embarks on a course of action but doesn’t intend the consequences, she observed: “It seems clear that’s the situation with Jordan.”

And she told family members: “I can’t begin to imagine what you are going through.”

After Jordan’s death, social media was inundated with tributes to a lad who was always smiling and had a “golden heart.”

Tributes from pals, who said there’d been a “tragic accident,” included “you were one of a kind kid” and “what a character you were.”

One childhood friend said: “Everyone on the estate got on with him and loved him.”