Midvale school for the gifted

"FOUR teenage boys spent 27 hours trapped in a loft, escaping only after realising that all they needed to do was pull the trapdoor rather than push it. The boys had gone up to the attic to fetch food and alcohol for a party they were planning while the mother of one of them was on holiday. Their guests arrived at the door, but left when there was no answer, having failed to hear the trapped teenagers’ cries for help. Fortunately they had their supplies of crisps, sausage rolls and beer to keep them going as they waited.

Their ordeal ended when one of the 17-year-old boys discovered that they had been trying to open the hatch the wrong way.

Ali Wood, of Gillingham, Kent, had taken advantage of the fact that his mother and her boyfriend were on holiday to throw a party. “We went up to get the food and drink from our loft after we had stashed it there because we didn’t want our parents to find out,” he said. It was then that he shut the hatch, imprisoning him with his student friends, Stephen Lloyd, Josh Nice and Dan Griffin.

The insulation in the loft meant that a mobile phone belonging to one of them could not get a signal, so they were unable to ring for help. Ali’s mother was not due home until four days after the planned party.

“We were laughing at the start, but then we realised the hatch wouldn’t open,” Stephen said. “The worst part was we could hear our friends outside, but we couldn’t do anything about it. All we had was snacks and drinks to last us all that time.”

Ali said: “Eventually our fears turned to panic. We literally had to calm ourselves down. We talked a lot and managed to sleep for a while. When Stephen opened the hatch, we were in hysterics. We couldn’t believe we had been stuck there so long when we could have been out in five minutes.

“I think our parents thought we had learnt our lesson. We were all just glad to be out.”

His mother, Christine, said: “I didn’t want them to have a party. But I thought it was funny when I realised what had happened.”"