Death of Bath teenager ruled an accident by coroner
15-year-old Max McMullen fell to his death from a 7th floor apartment while on a school exchange trip in Spain
The death of a young teenager from Bath has been formally declared an accident after a two-day inquest at Avon Coroners Court.
Max McMullen, who was 15, died in 2019 when he fell out of a 7th floor apartment window while on a school exchange trip in Spain, on October 19 of that year.
During the inquest, which took place in Flax Bourton just outside Bristol, we heard how he was a popular and talented young sportsman and was most likely trying to fix a broken shutter on the window of his host family's apartment, when he fell.
His family said afterwards that they would never forgive what had happened to him.
During her summing up the coroner, Maria Voisin, said she had heard lots of evidence that Max was generally a happy young man.
It was recounted how on the evening of his death, Max had been socialising with his school friends in a nearby park in Cordoba, before returning to his host family's apartment at around 10:45pm.
Evidence was recounted from the mother of the host family, that she had heard Max raising the window blind and shaking the grill, before there was a loud bang.
The window's shutter was later found seven stories below on the pavement, near to Max's body.
During her summing up the coroner highlighted evidence that Max had admitted feeling depressed at times and had said in text messages that he "hated" his host family and wanted to leave them.
Despite that though, she said there was no evidence to suggest Max's death was suicide.
Speaking outside the court afterwards, Max's family said they hope schools and organisations follow and review their polices on safety, to prevent a similar accident in the future.