Sheridan calls for bridge deaths inquiry
By Liz Stephens
Scottish MP Jim Sheridan has called for an inquiry after two teenage girls jumped off a bridge near Glasgow in an alleged suicide pact.
The girls left a residential care home for young people with behavioural and emotional difficulties, apparently unsupervised, and leapt 100ft to their deaths.
The MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North has called for an urgent inquiry into how they were able to leave the unit, which is in his constituency, and later kill themselves.
Mr Sheridan said: “It is important to see both an internal and police inquiry to answer questions and explain the events.
“People here really are in shock that something so terrible could happen. My heart goes out to all those touched by this.”
The Good Shepherd Centre where the girls were being housed is thought to have three sections – including a secure unit – but the girls were being housed in an open unit before their deaths.
Although young people at the open unit are not supervised 24 hours a day, they do need authorisation for any outing. It is believed the girls had left the unit without authorisation.
Staff raised the alarm when they noticed the girls were missing on Sunday night.
Their bodies were retrieved from the river Clyde shortly afterwards.
Mr Sheridan has also called for better fencing on the Erskine Bridge where the tragedy took place – a notorious suicide spot.
Speaking to BBC Scotland he said: “There are far too many deaths. I think we need to look at some sort of fencing that stops people from doing this.”
Argyll and Bute Council has promised to hold an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of the two teenagers.
