Teenage Audi mechanic 'committed suicide after colleagues set him on fire and locked him in a cage'

George Cheese and his girlfriend Chloe Skidmore-Lewis. Photo / Facebook

A teenage apprentice mechanic at Audi killed himself after bully colleagues burned his clothes and locked him in a cage, an inquest has heard.

George Cheese, 18, was "over the moon" when he got the position at the Berkshire car dealership in the UK, his parents said, but soon started coming home covered in bruises and had multiple holes burned into his clothes.

A coroner heard that on one occasion, the young man said his colleagues had locked him in a cage at the garage by force, doused him in a flammable liquid and set fire to his clothes.

His father, Keith Cheese, told the inquest that he would never forgive himself for missing the warning signs leading to his son's death. He said his son had approached him and tried to start a conversation the day he took his own life but he had not looked up, captivated by a pre-recorded golf tournament on the TV.

His father told the inquest that the evening before his death, George had been pacing around the house, saying "I have to quit, I can't go back there" over and over again.George committed suicide on April 9 last year, about six months after he started working for Audi.

Having told his son not to resign from his job and that things would get better, Cheese said he now realised how "ridiculous" this response was.

George's mother, Purdy Cheese, said she had been aware of the decline in her son's mental health for several months and that she had been able to ensure he took his medication until the final few days of his life, when she had fallen ill. He had previously taken an overdose of his medication.

She said that in the final months of his life, the verbal abuse from his colleagues had cut much deeper than his physical injuries and she told the inquest in Reading, Berkshire, that he had arrived at work one morning and was greeted by his boss who said: "Oh, so you are alive after all".

As his mental illness became known around his workplace, his mother said comments such as "take your happy pills George, you're going to need them" were regularly made.

When George complained to his boss, she said the man had replied: "Those naughty boys, I have told them about this."

The Berkshire coroner Peter Bedford was told that no action was taken after George reported the problem and he had later told his mother that his boss laughed the day he saw him locked in the cage and had walked away.

On top of everything else, PUrdy Cheese said George had been going through a rough time with his girlfriend, Chloe Skidmore-Lewis, whom he had been dating on and off for almost two years.

George had enlisted to become an Army mechanic in February, 2014, but had to quit when he suffered stress fractures to both legs. He applied for the job at the Audi dealership in the hope he could still follow his dream.

In a statement read by coroner, Reading mental health team service manager Julie Adams said that during a call after his first overdose, George had told her his employers "could really take it too far sometimes", to the point when it "actually got a bit dangerous".

Adams said he was worried that his girlfriend was going to leave him but would not speak about the failing relationship as he claimed this made him prone to panic attacks and suicidal thoughts.

Michelle Mbayiwa, who reviewed the mental health trust's conduct after George's death, said the 18-year-old was still waiting for his appointment with a counsellor when he died.

She said that four to six weeks' waiting time was normal for a patient deemed by psychiatrists as at "moderate risk", but believed this should have been upgraded when George told of his previous suicide attempts.

George's line manager, Simon Wright, who admitted to playing a number of pranks on George, told the inquest: "I was in the workshop when a prank was played on George and he was set on fire.

"It did not go too far. We knew where to draw the line," he said.

"It was not bullying."

He said that several of the things he had done to George, such as locking him in the boot of a car and hosing him down with a pressure cleaner, were what most of the apprentices were subjected to and that they would always be laughing at the end.

Dealership manager, Terry Kindeleit told the coroner that some of the pranks were "in response to George's behaviour such as being cheeky or lippy", but added that his personal make-up would not allow him to turn a blind eye to anything inappropriate.

"I made it clear that George was important to the value of the dealership," he said.

Kindeleit told the coroner that when George's parents had approached him to talk about the abuse, George had been sitting in a corner of the room with his head down and had later told him that he did not wish to make a formal complaint.

Kindeleit said he had therefore concluded that George was making it up and said he would not have been surprised if the story was completely fabricated by the "troubled individual".

However, Kindeleit did not deny that he had witnessed George being locked in a cage and set on fire and had reacted by laughing and walking away. He could not recall telling George's parents about this at the meeting.

After George's death, the manager said they had worked hard to prevent future Audi apprentices from having a similar experience at the garage.

As well as allowing employees to file weekly appraisal forms about their superiors, Kindeleit said they were organising more team building exercises and promoting communication in the workplace.