A PARALYSED man whose life was devastated by tombstoning said: ‘I told you so’ after another youngster injured himself taking part in the crazy stunt.

Bill Neill’s reaction follows the latest incident in which a boy aged 12 broke his ankle jumping off the pier by Castle Cove Sailing Club on Saturday and was airlifted to hospital.

For Mr Neill it is the latest reminder of his own misadventures, when at the age of 18 in August 1983, he shattered his spine jumping 25ft off Weymouth Pleasure Pier into four-and-a-half feet of water.

The jump left Bill permanently paralysed from the waist down and he has since pleaded with youngsters face-to-face not to jump into the sea – warnings that have often been met with derision.

Tombstoning is jumping into water from a height.

After learning of the latest injury, Bill said his message concerning the craze has not changed – simply don’t do it.

Bill, 43, of Littlemoor said: “My only reaction really can be to say: ‘I told you so’.

“All of these youngsters have been warned now – these kinds of accidents are going to happen as long as people keep jumping in the sea, it’s as simple as that.”

He added: “It also makes me wonder where the parents are – if they know where their kids are going and what they’re doing.

“This has been going on for quite a few years now and I’m getting more and more concerned about it.

“I’m just frightened it’s going to happen to another child and they are going to have to go through what I went through and start their life over again, or even worse, be killed.”

As a result of being wheelchair-bound, Mr Neill has suffered kidney failure and is on the waiting list for a transplant.

He has to undergo four hours of dialysis every other day at Dorset County Hospital and also suffers from heart problems and depression.

He said: “I was never told what was wrong and just learnt through eavesdropping on doctors’ conversations that I would never walk again. I’ve had a different life to the life I should have had. I’ve missed cycling and swimming and just little things like walking across the beach and feeling the heat of the sand.”

Mr Neill, who trained as a builder but hasn’t been able to work since the accident, now relies upon a panic button, regular nurse visits and 24-hour warden care provided by the housing block he lives in.

He said: “People now look at me as though there’s something seriously wrong with me and a lot of people assume I was in a motorcycle accident. Now I want to tell them what’s wrong with me and what I did. I took a running jump off the pier and it changed my life forever.

“When I see kids doing it now, I go up to them and try to get them to stop and they just laugh at me.”