TRIBUTES have been paid to a teenager who died after getting stuck on top of a gate in Colchester.

Annie Davidson

TRIBUTES have been paid to a teenager who died after getting stuck on top of a gate in Colchester.

Carl Ford, 19, passed away in Colchester General Hospital on Monday after being found on top of the gate at a house in St John's Road on Sunday evening.

Mystery surrounds why the teenager was on the gate and police have appealed for information from the public to try and establish exactly what happened.

The cause of Mr Ford's death was also unclear - although he had not been impaled on the gate's metal spikes - with one unconfirmed report suggesting he may have accidentally fallen and hung himself while climbing over.

However, police confirmed the death was not being treated as suspicious and have handed the case over to the Essex coroner for an inquest at a later date.

Emergency services were called to the scene at around 8.15pm on Sunday, but the teenager was alreadt seriously ill by the time they arrived.

They carried out life saving treatment before transferring him to hospital where he died the following day.

Yesterday, flowers had been left at the gate and at the home Mr Ford shared until recently with his father, Mark Ford, in Primrose Walk on the Greenstead estate.

The flowers at the accident scene read: “RIP. Bought your cap back you left the other night so you can wear it in heaven. Thinking of you always.”

It was signed from Charlotte, Toni, lil Dan, Brett, Ryan and Rhys.

At the family home, neighbours said Mr Ford's father had moved out recently to live with his partner and the teenager had been hoping to find his own flat.

Flowers had been left on the front doorstep with a card reading, “you will be missed dearly.”

Pat Moor, who has lived next to the family for many years, said: “He was a good lad. He liked his music.

“I saw him only on Saturday morning with all his mates and we said hello. He was going out somewhere.

“His dad came to pick up the dog, I think he is devastated over this, it is so sudden.”

No-one at the property where the accident happened was available to comment yesterday but one neighbour said police and ambulance crews had been alerted by a man who lived opposite.

“I think someone knocked on the door for help and they both lifted him down (off the gate),” said the neighbour, who did not wish to be named.

Essex Police appealed for anyone who could help establish why Mr Ford was at the property and how he became stuck to contact Colchester CID on 0300 333 4444.