A SCHOOLBOY found hanged in an Ellesmere Port wood was ‘excited’ about the prospect of starting at a new college the following day.

Dean Gordon Jeffrey Bennett, 16, was discovered by a family friend near Merseyton Road after the alarm was raised when he failed to show up at his step-grandmother’s house on Sunday, September 11, last year.

A day later Dean, of Atherton Road, Ellesmere Port, was due to begin a course in forensic science at West Cheshire College’s Handbridge campus.

The previous week, he seemed in good spirits as he said his goodbyes at the school’s Ellesmere Port base.

Dean’s mum chose not to attend Chester Magistrates Court for his inquest on Monday but a statement she made to police was read out.

“We were each other’s world and had an extremely close bond,” she said.

Dean was born on December 22, 1994, at the Countess of Chester Hospital and began life at the home his mum, Sally Bennett, then shared with Dean’s father, Stephen Bennett. The pair separated when Dean was eight months old.

At the time of his death Dean was living with his mum and her partner, Gary Prendergast.

He briefly attended Atherton Infants, Regent Street, before moving to Mansfield Infant School and later Sutton High School.

He was an avid reader, a Harry Potter fan and enjoyed playing XBox games with his friends and had dreams of living in Canada when he grew up.

“He was very affectionate, kissing me and telling me he loved me,” said his mum.

“Dean had a funny, wicked sense of humour and would take pleasure in winding people up.”

Dean very rarely drank alcohol and never smoked.

His mum had dropped him off at his friend, Luke Roberts’s house that Saturday, September 10, 2011.

They spent much of the day playing XBox before Luke’s mum dropped him off at his grandmother Ivy’s home on Merseyton Road, where he stayed the night.

The next day he was due to go to his stepdad’s mum’s house.

“When Dean failed to show up at Gary’s mum’s we were concerned,” remembered his mum.

“The lack of contact really scared us. I don’t know why Dean decided to do what he did.

“He was looking forward to his degree at college. The whole thing came as a big shock and I am still extremely upset, as are all the family.”

Coroner Michael Wallbank said: “Whatever demons troubled him, we may never know but they led to the end of a young and promising life.”

VERDICT: Suicide.