Sam Puttick

Boy, 5, found dead next to suicide pact parents at Beachy Head had been paralysed in accident
By Sam Greenhill and Julie Moult
Last updated at 1:00 PM on 02nd June 2009

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The five-year-old boy whose body was found in a rucksack held by his parents at the bottom of Beachy Head was a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair.
Sam Puttick was left paralysed from the neck down after being hit by a car in 2005 and his parents Neil and Kazumi Puttick had their home specially adapted to meet his care needs, neighbours have said today.
Police fear the devastated couple agreed a suicide pact after deciding they could not face life without their son, who died at their family home from natural causes after a short illness.


Tragedy: The bodies of Neil, Kazumi and Sam Puttick are taken away yesterday after being found at the bottom of cliffs at Beachy Head, Sussex
One village resident, who asked not to be named, said: 'It is a terrible tragedy and I can't believe it has happened.
'They moved to the village about four or five years ago and I helped to welcome them into the community.
'I saw loads of police there yesterday and wondered what was going on.
'I know little Sam had a spinal injury. The whole family are gone. This is too shocking for words.'
Sam suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury when he was hit by a car at the age of 1, according to the website of collectables company SamsAttic co-run by his father.
The injury meant he was completely paralysed below the neck and was on a ventilator 24 hours a day.
After nine months in hospital, Sam was able to return to the family home in Brokerswood, Wiltshire, where he required round-the-clock care.
The Puttick family home in Brokerswood was specially adapted in 2007 to meet Sam's care needs

Sue Capon, who runs nearby Brokerswood Country Park, said everyone at the site was still coming to terms with the tragedy.
'All of them were very good friends. I only saw them three days ago,' she said.
Another neighbour, Raymond Little, said: 'They were a lovely couple and they did 150 per cent for that boy. It is all such a shock.'
Horrified rescuers recovered all three bodies yesterday from the base of the notorious suicide spot in Eastbourne, East Sussex.
Hardened emergency workers said they had never come across a scene so heartbreaking.
Neil and Kazumi Puttick are believed to have carried their son's body inside a zipped-up rucksack to their silver Volkswagen caravanette on Sunday and driven 100 miles from their home in Wiltshire to Eastbourne.
They pulled into a cliff-top car park and walked the remaining 100 yards to the edge, overlooking Beachy Head lighthouse.


This people carrier was towed away from the scene

Police are still trying to piece together how they spent their final tragic minutes, but as well as the body of their son, the couple had brought another bag containing his teddy bears and a toy tractor.
No witnesses to the final moments have come forward, and it was not until 8pm that a Coastguard patrol spotted two bodies on the cliff face, lying on a ledge 400ft down.
Fading light delayed rescue operations until yesterday morning when a Coastguard was winched down the cliff.
Station officer Stuart McNab said: 'The bag was closed when I got to it. I saw what I thought was a doll's head - but on closer examination it was a child.'
Mr McNab added that it was clear the family were dead when they were seen on Sunday evening.
He said: 'They had fallen on to a ledge near the bottom. I decided to leave the recovery until the following day.
'Our experience is that people who have gone down that sort of distance at that particular location would not have survived. We arrived here at 8am today.
'I went down and had a cursory look around and there were two rucksacks. They were both closed and they were near the male and female bodies.'
Rescue services at the scene recovered the three bodies, including Sam's found inside a rucksack


After finding the little boy in a rucksack, Mr McNab found the youngster's toys in the second bag.
He added: 'We've had multiple suicides before but they are usually elderly people. We are fairly well experienced in recovering bodies but very seldom are they children - this does affect the team more.'
A police source said last night: 'We are investigating exactly what led to this terrible tragedy but a line of inquiry is that the parents were so overcome with grief at their son's fairly sudden death that they decided they could not bear to go on without him.
The 600ft cliffs are popular with walkers - but are also a notorious suicide spot

'He had a short illness and died at home, of natural causes. They seem to have been a normal family struck by awful circumstances.'
Details of Sam's illness have not been released.

In 2007 the boy's parents filed a planning application to the local council to adapt their home in Brokerswood and to provide full-time carer accommodation.
Chief Inspector Dick Coats of Sussex Police said officers were not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths.
Last night police were trying to trace relatives of the family, some of whom are on holiday, to break the dreadful news to them before making public the victims' identities.
A spokesman for Dover Coastguard said: 'It is really horrific and incredibly sad. In my four years with the Coastguard, I have never known anything like this.'
Later yesterday forensic experts were lowered by a helicopter winch to examine the scene, before the bodies were taken up on Coastguard stretchers.
A recovery truck towed away the family's caravanette away. Post-mortem examinations are expected to be carried out today.