Boy, 16, dies in village 'shooting'

Mar 11 2013

A teenage boy has died after apparently shooting himself in a quiet village.

Police were called to the sudden death of the 16-year-old at a property in Cobham, Kent, at 10.30pm on Friday.

The death of the boy, who has not been formally identified, is not being treated as suspicious, police said.

A Kent Police spokesman said: "Police were called at 10.30pm on 8 March to a sudden death of a 16-year-old boy at a private address in Cobham. The death is being treated as non-suspicious but unexplained at this time."

The boy has been identified as Charlie Booth, a Year 11 pupil at leading independent school Gad's Hill, based at the former home of Charles Dickens in Higham.

A school statement said: "Gad's Hill School is united in grief today after the announcement of the death of one of its pupils.

"It is with a heavy heart and great sadness that the school, in Higham, learnt of the sudden, untimely and unexplained death of one of its Year 11 students, 16-year-old Charlie Booth, who was fatally injured at his home on Friday March 8."

Dickens made Gad's Hill Place - where the school is currently based - his home in 1856 and penned classic novels including Great Expectations.

In the 1920s, Gad's Hill Place was converted into a school for girls.

Then, in the 1980s, the school admitted boys into its kindergarten and junior school, and in 2001 became fully co-educational and admitted boys throughout the school.