What price friendship?

THE father of a drunken teenager who froze to death said yesterday he’d had justice for his son when a coroner criticised police for refusing to give the 17-year-old a lift home. It transpired that Lee, was drunk, covered in mud, had lost his shoes and was spotted by motorists staggering on the A550 in Flintshire trying to wave traffic down.

Two police officers said they were happy with their decision not to give Lee a lift the two and a quarter miles home from where they found him near a roundabout on January 30, 2004, after having been alerted by Motorists reporting a young man on A550 staggering across the road trying to wave traffic down. Some cars have to swerve to avoid him.

What is probably the most disturbing factor in all this is the final sentence in the timeline report given to the coroner:

"Lee goes out for a drink with friends to the Cross Keys pub, Buckley. He leaves pub but appears to have set off in the wrong direction."

The poice might certainly have been remiss in not assisting in getting him home but where were his friends? Teenagers do get drunk - it happens - but their friends usually look out for them. In this tragic case, it seems, they weren't prepared to take the trouble.