An 11-year-old schoolgirl who had raised concerns about bullying took her own life, an inquest heard, but may not have intended to kill herself.
Jessica May Simpson died at her home in Burscough, on the evening of March 11, 2019.
A police investigation concluded that no-one else was involved in the girl’s death, but the inquest at Preston Coroner's Court heard that she may not have actually intended to kill herself.
Re-opening the inquest, Area Coroner Richard Taylor said the location of the death and an item used were not consistent with typical suicide attempts, Lancs Live reported.
Paramedics were called to the home and despite efforts there and at Ormskirk Hospital, she was pronounced dead in the early hours of the following morning.
The inquest heard she had made reference to killing herself in a chat within an online game and another user attempted to talk her out of her plans.
Mr Taylor read into the record a statement from Jessica’s grandmother, Elizabeth Simpson, who said the youngster would visit her home three days a week before school while her dad worked.
Jessica would go back round after school for tea and biscuits, where she would later be joined by two of her older sisters who went to another school.
Mrs Simpson recalled speaking on the phone to Jessica on the evening of her death and noted that she had seemed quieter than normal, adding: “I just didn’t think she was herself during conversation.”
Summing up her statement, Mr Taylor said Jessica had been described as a “very helpful young girl” who often “helped with the cleaning up and things like that”.
A statement read out on behalf of Jessica's dad, Alan Simpson, described her as a “little rock”.
On the night of her death, he had considered going to bed at around 9pm but after noticing the washing machine hadn’t been switched on, he asked the girls if they wanted to watch a film while they waited for it.
Jessica, who was the youngest, decided she didn’t want to and instead sat in the other living room listening to music and playing on her phone.
When asked again later, she again said she didn’t want to join them and that she was OK.
Shortly after, she was found dead having taken her own life.
Giving evidence at the hearing, Det Insp George Binns said it was routine for police to attend any unexpected or unnatural death and that another inspector had attended and identified no evidence of criminality or third party involvement.
DI Binns followed up the death with the coroner on the morning of March 12 and asked officers to visit the school to follow up a reference she had made to bullying in a note but the school reported it had no records of her being bullied.
Officers spoke with one friend who said they were not aware of any problems.
It was also found that Jessica had been playing an online game on her phone and had made reference to killing herself in a chat within the game. In response, it appeared another user had attempted to talk her out of her plans, DI Binns said.
He added that due to the nature of the game and the use of usernames, they were unable to find out who she was chatting with or even where they were located.
Neil Hunter, an independent reviewer for Lancashire’s Children’s Safeguarding Assurance Partnership (CSAP), was asked to investigate the involvement of any partner agencies such as the school and social services.
He said that Jessica, who was born in Preston, had previously been under a care management programme when she lived with her mum and that all four girls went on to move in with their dad in West Lancs.
Her eldest sister had moved away and Mr Hunter said that Jessica had felt somewhat lonely and isolated both at home and at school.
Mr Hunter said Jessica had previously taken part in the Healthy Child Programme at primary school to talk about anxiety issues and was seen once by the school nurse at high school before deciding not to attend a voluntary drop by session.
He went on to explain one incident which prompted a teacher to contact the school’s safeguarding lead.
He said: Just before Christmas 2018, they were doing some school work and part was a critique of a particular author and a particular piece of work.
“Jessica did the critique but also wrote what I would call an agony aunt letter. During that, she wrote in the third person which seemed to be based on her own life.
“A lot of things she wrote seemed to be things happening in her own life.
“The teacher raised it as a safeguarding lead who spoke to her before and after Christmas. They were happy with how the conversation went and they wrote they didn’t have any concerns about what she’d written,” Mr Hunter said.
The school had not informed her father of the contents or existence of the agony aunt letter - which also contained a reference to being bullied - and he did not learn about it until after her death.
Mr Hunter said that although the information he had been given did not suggest that the death could have been predicted and prevented, he would like to see all partner agencies be more proactive and “courageous” about raising concerns with each other.
He also said that a very close friend at the school had not been spoken to by any of the agencies and that doing so would have been the best way to explore the suggestions of bullying.
Asked about Jessica’s intentions on the day of her death, Mr Hunter said he had spent 35 years working in the police before changing careers and had never known someone so young to kill themselves.
He said: “When I was in the police, I was always hypothesising about what happened and on this occasion I came to my hypothesis that we could consider that this was a fatal accident and that Jessica didn’t want to take her own life but that she didn’t like the life she was living in that moment in time.
“The difference is very, very small there but it’s very, very important and that was the hypothesis I came to with all the information I had available to me.”
Closing the hearing, Mr Taylor explained that he was responsible for concluding how Jessica had died as opposed to why and recorded a narrative conclusion which stated that she died at her home address.
“However there is conflicting evidence as to her intentions,” he said.
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