THE story of brothers Levi George and Gareth Price is a tale interwoven and overwhelmed with tragedy.

The pair were both aged 16 when they took their own lives in 2001 and 2005 respectively.

Levi George was described as a happy-go-lucky and popular teenager and his funeral was attended by hundreds of mourners in his hometown of Ferryhill, including his parents Sailus and Karen Price and 15 siblings.

The schoolboy was founded hanged at home in Lovaine Terrace - and his father said brother Gareth, who was 12 at the time, was never the same again.

Just months later, the family suffered further heartbreak when mother-of-two Rose Ann Price died in a car crash when travelling from Doncaster to Ferryhill to spend bonfire night with family.

Her husband Craig – brother of Levi George and Gareth - and daughter Courtenay, two, were also in the car but were not seriously injured.

The events sent Gareth into a downward spiral which saw him involved in a car crash that caused the death of a young friend from Spennymoor.

The then 14-year-old pleaded guilty at Teesside Crown Court to crashing a stolen Vauxhall Astra in January 2003, leaving the 13-year-old Spennymoor Comprehensive student with fatal injuries.

The car careered out of control in the village of West Cornforth, County Durham, travelling 65ft through the air before overturning and crashing through the boundary fence of a scrap yard.

Gareth was given an 18-month supervision order – but the following year he was arrested for the rape of a 17-year-old girl in Formby after a holiday to the Liverpool area.

He pleaded guilty to the charge and during his time on remand made several attempts to take his own life, including setting fire to himself on one occasion.

It was during his time in Lancaster Farms Young Offenders’ Institution in 2005 that Gareth hanged himself – just hours before he was due to be sentenced.

A later report found the teenager was failed by the organisations involved in safeguarding vulnerable people in custody.

Durham Local Safeguarding Children Board said in 2008 that lessons had to be learned and at an inquest into Gareth’s death the coroner criticised several agencies including council youth offending services in Lancaster and County Durham, the prison service, his own solicitor and a visiting psychiatrist.

The report said although they may not have been able to save his life, the professionals failed to share information about incidents of self-harming in 2004 and a psychiatric report describing him as high risk of suicide around the time of sentencing.

And now, more than a decade on from the family tragedies, the final resting place of the teenage brothers at Metal Bridge Cemetery near Spennymoor has been disturbed, and their skulls stolen, apparently as part of a bitter feud between rival traveller families.