'Sex game' kills teenager

2006-08-14 23:10

Eduan Roos

Johannesburg - The parents of a schoolboy who died last week during a sex game, warned about this "dangerous experiment" among teenagers.

Jean-Pierre Aitchison, 15, a ''bright, adult'' pupil at Pinetown Boys High School in KwaZulu-Natal, presumably suffocated last Tuesday after tying a metre-long cable around his neck while masturbating.

Jean-Pierre's stepfather, Ivan Wright, 34, and his mother Tracey, 36, first thought their son had committed suicide when they found him hanging from a basketball hoop in his room.

Later, they found out he had experimented with auto-erotic asphyxia (AEA), which heightens stimulation and orgasm by asphyxiation until the person is nearly unconscious.

No suicide note

Wright found Jean-Pierre's body about 17:00 when he was to have taken him to a maths class.

He said: "When he didn't answer me, I just knew something was wrong.

"I'd previously seen the cable in his room, but because he was always busy with electronic projects I didn't take much notice.

"There was no suicide note and the cable was very loose around his neck. The hoop was less than 10cm above his height, so we suspect he wanted to regulate the cable with his hand, but something went wrong."

Wright heard from talks with some of Jean-Pierre's friends that the sex game was now "the in-thing" among many teenage boys.

"They don't realise how dangerous it is and parents must realise that it kills our kids," said Wright.

"Parents must take note of any ropes that their children might use for this - before it's too late."

Fatal experiment

AEA apparently claims the lives of up to 1 000 American men annually, but Dr Pixie du Toit, head of the Sinoville crisis centre in Pretoria, said this phenomenon was "relatively unknown" in South Africa.

She said inquisitive teenagers' experiments with sex could have fatal consequences.

"They see this kind of thing on television and on the internet and they try it out, without realising how very dangerous it is," she said.

Tory MP Stephen Milligan and Australian rock singer Michael Hutchence, 37, presumably both died after suffocating during sex experiments.

- Beeld