Pub’s Halloween body bag is ‘disturbing’

A suicide prevention charity is calling on a pub to take down its Halloween display because it is “disturbing”.

A decoration consisting of a black body bag-shaped bin suspended from a rope was installed outside the Ye Olde Fighting Cocks pub in St Albans this week.

Debi Roberts, chief executive of suicide prevention charity The Ollie Foundation, which is also based in the Hertfordshire town, warned the film could be upsetting to people whose loved ones have taken their own lives.

She said: “I think the pub is free to choose, but the fact that so many local people have said they find it distasteful and depressing should be reason enough to remove it.

“The decorations showing a figure resembling a body in a body bag with a noose around its neck are deeply disturbing,” she added.

It came with a card with the name “Karen” on it.

The owners of the pub, believed to be one of the oldest in the country, have been contacted for comment.

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The Ollie Foundation was founded in 2016 by three parents, each of whom lost a teenage child to suicide.

Ms Roberts noted that 1 in 6 people take antidepressants and “work hard every day to stay afloat”.

She said: “Such decorations can make life difficult when a child is already feeling overwhelmed.

“For someone who is feeling suicidal or has lost a loved one to suicide, these screenings can serve as painful reminders, evoking memories and emotions that are difficult to control.

“It won’t offend everyone, but knowing that it upsets some people and why it’s so depressing for them is certainly reason enough to think twice about using this particular decoration.”

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