Teenager's badly beaten body found on wasteland

AN INQUIRY has been launched into the mysterious death of a teenager after his body was found on waste ground.

Police were called to a wooded area off Lickprivick Road in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, at about 7pm on Thursday, after the teenager, named locally as Jack Frew, was discovered.

Ambulance crews were called, but he is believed to have died at the scene. It is thought he had been badly beaten and suffered slash wounds.

It is understood that a second schoolboy was treated for injuries at Hairmyres Hospital before being transferred to the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow.

Though the police have not named the dead teenager, he was identified locally as Jack Frew, 17, a gifted actor involved in local drama groups.

The teenager is understood to have been a pupil at the Duncanrigg Secondary School in East Kilbride.

The area was cordoned off by police during the evening as officers and forensic teams searched the area for evidence, while a police helicopter hovered overhead. Police maintained a presence at the site throughout yesterday.

One woman, who asked not to be named, said that when she became aware of what had happened, she had called her children in from playing.

The 33-year-old said: "I didn't realise what had happened at first. We get a fair bit of trouble with youngsters out fighting, but never anything too bad. It's a really horrible thing to happen.

"My two were out playing , but I called them in straight away when the police arrived. It's scary."

Lickprivick Road is a long street which runs between Westwood and Greenhills, and also runs through the Mossneuk area.

The area where the body was found is flanked on both sides by waste ground and trees. Locals say this makes it is a magnet for teenage gang fights.

One woman said the closely-knit neighbourhood has several young gangs and fighting is common, but that stabbings in the small community were rare.

She said: "This is a very small area and everybody knows everyone else.

"It's not the best area and there are gangs and plenty of fights, but never normally something so serious.

"It's quite shocking to know that this has happened up here."

A spokeswoman for Strathclyde Police said: "The body of a young man was found in the Mossneuk area of East Kilbride.

"Officers were called to the scene at around at 7pm and the death is being treated as suspicious."