An inquest has found that 15-year-old Arthur, son of musician Nick Cave and designer Susie Bick, had taken LSD the afternoon he fell from a cliff into the Ovingdean Gap near Brighton on 14 July this year.
Senior Coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley, sitting at Woodvale Crematorium in Brighton, found yesterday that the death was “accidental” and that the cause of death was “multiple traumatic injuries due to a fall from a height.” Ms Hamilton-Deeley added that the LSD was “taken by lads who were inquiring and experimenting and it’s what all kids do all the time, and most of the time … they get away with it, except on sad occasions like this.”
In a statement issued by the Cave family after the inquest, Arthur’s parents said that they had been overwhelmed by the messages of support they had received:
“Arthur was a wonderfully unruly, creative and free-spirited young man with an infectious, happy, funny daredevil nature.”
The case has been covered widely in the press, including by the BBC, The Guardian, The Daily Mail and the Metro.
Sean Horstead is a member of Garden Court Chambers’ Inquests Team. Sean was instructed by Andre Clovis of Tuckers solicitors.
