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Rugby fatality last May ends up linked to initiation

Here is the link and an excerpt

 

A teenage University of Glouchestershire student died after a rugby initiation drinking game went wrong, a coroner has heard. Nineteen-year-old Samuel Potter, of Hersham, Surrey, died from alcohol toxicity at a house in Linden, Gloucestershire on May 9 this year.

At a pre-inquest review, at Gloucestershire Coroner’s Court on Wednesday, the coroner was told that a number of students attended the university rugby initiation event held at an address in Seymour Road, Linden.

Third and fourth year students are believed to have concocted the alcoholic drinks.

Family, friends and the counsel representing the University of Gloucestershire student attended the review.

Mr Potter’s mother, Lindsay Potter, said: “We want to find out how this situation arose and how it happened, to prevent it from happening again.

“There may be a code of conduct which the university did not follow.”

Senior coroner for Gloucestershire Katy Skerrett said: “I am duty bound to issue a PFD report (Prevention of Future Deaths) if I find it to be appropriate.”

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. In April of 2024 and April 2025 , the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division and Best Humorist, second place.

He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com

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