Mother of boy who died at Leeds Festival calls for ban on unsupervised teens

• By Katie Oscroft

The mother of a boy who died after taking drugs at Leeds Festival has called for a ban on admitting unaccompanied teenagers.

David Celino, who was 16, died after a reaction to an ecstasy tablet at the festival in 2022, days before he received his GCSE results.

Speaking ahead of this year's event, his mother, Nicky, said 16 and 17-year-olds were unprepared for the experience.

"They are vulnerable, they're trying to have a good time and do things which aren't legally allowed, so they don't know where to turn when things go wrong.

"You can't hold them back, but you can make things as safe as possible for them," she said.

David's parents bought his Leeds Festival ticket and took him to the venue from their home in Worsley in Greater Manchester, before he went went in with friends.

The teenager is believed to have taken one-and-a-half tablets bought from a dealer who has never been identified. He had an adverse reaction and suffered a cardiac arrest.

Following David's inquest last year coroner Kevin McLoughlin published a Prevention of Future Deaths report. He wrote: "The magnitude of the problem of potentially vulnerable, naive teenagers exposed to possible exploitation by drug dealers, was not appreciated."

Mrs Celino said: "The boys were groomed once it was spotted that they couldn't buy alcohol because they weren't old enough.

"Young people need to have a plan of what they will do if they can't buy drink. They should also seek help from medical staff if something happens - even if they think they've done something illegal. The doctors won't judge"

Mrs Celino spoke of the heartbreaking aftermath of her son's death and said what happened to him could happen to anyone.

"I unpacked David's bag after the festival - that's hard. I don't want anyone else unpacking their young person's bag," she said.

"All our anniversaries are in the summer, his birthday, going to the festival, when he died. David could take care of himself in many situations but festival culture is so different."

She now wants to work with authorities at a national level to collect data and compare notes about festivals to make them safer for the young people who attend.

"We need to know more about what happens, about the near-misses," she said.

"But in the end I hope this year's festival passes off without any family having to face this."

The family has raised money in his memory for the Eureka Children's Museum in Halifax where he loved to visit as a young child. His image is painted into a mural on the museum wall.

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