Hoax caller laughed after telling parents their son was dead

A hoax caller rocked back and forth with laughter seconds after phoning an unsuspecting father claiming his only child had "just been killed". Aaron Davie was at a train station when a teenage boy approached him and asked if he could borrow his mobile phone to call his father for a lift home.

The 29-year-old, who had been out drinking, let the 15-year-old make the call but moments after he had wandered off, he pressed redial and delivered the cruel message. After hanging up he was captured on CCTV collapsing in a fit of laughter as he swigged from a can of beer at Aston train station in Birmingham.

The trainee accountant from Redditch, West Mids, has now pleaded guilty to making the hoax call in December and is awaiting sentence.



Prosecutor Jonathan Purser told Birmingham Magistrates' Court that Davie rang the youngster's father and said: "'Have you just been speaking to your son?' Mr Purser added: "He said 'yes I have'. The man's voice then said 'he's just been killed' and the phone went dead."

Speaking outside court, the boy's parents said they had been terrified after the "cold and matter-of fact" call and rushed to the station in search of their son. The boy's 50-year-old father said: "I nearly sunk to the floor. It was the worst 40 minutes of my life. I don't know how I functioned."

The couple drove to the station and found the boy safe and well, who was oblivious to their concerns. Defending, Kelly Edwards, said her client felt "utterly ashamed of himself" and could not explain why he made the drunken hoax call.