The teacher of a young man mauled to death by a tiger has described him as a ‘talented’ student from a ‘lovely’ family.
William Chapman suffered fatal injuries after he entered Amur tiger Altai’s enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park last Saturday.
An inquest at Doncaster Coroner’s Court heard the 24-year-old had a history of mental illness and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Marylyn Phillips, 76, who taught William for 10 years, said he had ‘everything going for him’.
She told the Daily Mail: ‘It’s heartbreaking enough when they leave [school], let alone this. They are a lovely family, and they are devastated.’
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The teacher added his parents were ‘lovely’ people and ‘not pushy at all’.
Witnesses described seeing William leap from a suspended bridge after getting someone to take a photo of him with the tiger.
The 200kg animal proceeded to attack him, leaving him fatally wounded, and he was declared dead on the scene by emergency services.
As a child actor, William had parts in productions as young as ten years old, including ITV’s May Contain Nuts alongside Harry Potter star Shirley Henderson, who played Moaning Myrtle, and in the BBC’s True Stories programme.
But he suffered from bouts of psychosis and was under the watch of adult mental health services in Doncaster, with whom his family had registered concerns prior to his death.
His cause of death was provisionally listed as ‘multiple traumatic injuries’.
In a statement, his family hit out at insensitive coverage of the incident, including the circulation of a video showing his death, which Metro chose not to publish, but was shared by US President Donald Trump.
The statement said: ‘The family are utterly devastated by their loss and are struggling to come to terms with what has happened.
‘The publication and circulation of deeply offensive media content is causing them severe distress at an exceptionally vulnerable time. We ask people to stop doing this.’
It also emerged that NHS staff may have inappropriately accessed or attempted to access William’s medical records.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust launched an investigation after two members of staff accessed or attempted to access medical information.
A full inquest hearing has been scheduled for March 18 next year.
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