The mother of a bullied 12-year-old girl has said her daughter struggled to get mental health support on the NHS in the months before she killed herself, and accused her school of failing to deal with inappropriate messages circulating among pupils.
The mother of Charley-Ann Patterson, Jamie, told a hearing that despite being seen by three medical professionals, Charley-Ann had been unable to get mental health support in the months before her death.
In a statement read at an inquest at Northumberland coroner’s court on 12 October, Jamie said her daughter had changed halfway through her first year of secondary school, when she was sent “inappropriate” and “shocking” messages by other pupils.
Jamie’s statement said that one message read: “You’re useless, you can’t even kill yourself properly.” Charley-Ann said “she had been receiving messages of a similar nature for a while”.
A week before she was found dead at her home in Cramlington, Northumberland, on 1 October 2020, Charley-Ann was sent a TikTok video which left her “visibly upset” showing her “how to tie a knot that couldn’t be untied”.
Jamie said she spoke to Charley-Ann’s school, Cramlington Learning Village, and learned “several other parents had also mentioned inappropriate messages going around school”.
The statement said that during the first Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, Charley-Ann had received messages through her Chromebook – which the school asked parents to purchase – and in virtual “breakout rooms” which she believed were not monitored by members of staff.
The inquest heard that Jamie first took her daughter to a GP over self-harm concerns in June 2019, but she said she “did not believe that the GP took Charley-Ann’s self-harm seriously, potentially due to her age”.
She took Charley-Ann to A&E in May 2020 after a second episode of self-harm, where she was referred to a psychiatric team and given a telephone appointment in which she was told Charley-Ann would be referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), but that “it was likely that she would not be seen for three years”.
In an appointment with a nurse she was told that she would be referred to the Northumberland mental health hub for low mood and anxiety, but later learned “that this referral was never made”.
Jamie said she believed Charley-Ann “felt very isolated” due to not being able to go to school during the pandemic, and had issues with the “bubble” system implemented to minimise Covid spread. The school placed her in the same bubble as a pupil she had a problem with, and was told this “could not be changed”.
Jamie said she took away Charley-Ann’s electronic devices in summer 2020 and saw a “huge change in her mood and behaviour”, but that her attitude changed when she returned to school in September and started deleting her messages and call history. Within a fortnight she had killed herself.
Jamie said the family was now “actively campaigning to improve children’s mental health services and reduce waiting times”.
The inquest continues.
In the UK, the youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org, and in the UK and Ireland Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
