23 Sep 2020

Mixed feelings, one year since Mason Pendrous was found dead at university accommodation

From Checkpoint, 5:41 pm on 23 September 2020

Today marks one year since the discovery of the body of Mason Pendrous in his room at his Canterbury University accommodation.

The 19-year-old lay dead for between two and four weeks at the Sonoda Building before he was found by a friend.

Since then the university and Campus Living, the private company that operates the halls, have rung the changes to ensure students living away from home for the first time are better cared for.

But while the family of Mason Pendrous have welcomed the changes, they remain deeply disappointed, at what they say is the failure of Campus Living to tell them what it has been doing to ensure the same thing does not happen to anybody else's son.

Eleisha Foon reports.