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| Gaia Pope: Sexual comments made to teen on psychiatric ward, inquest told | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
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| Gaia Pope's family produced a video to show to the inquest jury | |
| Gaia Pope's family produced a video to show to the inquest jury | |
| A teenager who reported being raped was put on a mixed psychiatric ward where she was subjected to sexual remarks, an inquest has heard. | |
| Gaia Pope, 19, was staying at a Dorset Healthcare-run unit when the inappropriate comments were made to her by a male patient in February 2017. | |
| She died of hypothermia on a clifftop in Swanage almost nine months later. | |
| Dorset Coroner's Court previously heard that Miss Pope had been missing for 11 days when her body was found. | |
| The inquest in Bournemouth was told she had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act after having a severe epileptic seizure, leading to "acute confusion" that was compounded by cannabis use. | |
| Miss Pope's disappearance prompted a major search and rescue operation | |
| Dr Dinesh Kannan, her psychiatrist, said that during her eight-day stay at St Ann's Hospital in Poole a male patient "tried to engage her in sexually inappropriate conversations". | |
| "I'm deeply sorry for what Gaia had to endure in that experience," he told the jury. | |
| "It is a peril of the mixed ward that the assessment ward was at the time." | |
| He added that more safeguarding measures should have been considered for Miss Pope. | |
| Gaia Pope's body was found 11 days after she went missing in November 2017 | |
| Dr Kannan said she also suffered with post-traumatic stress disorder, which was associated with a rape she had reported, but that was not at the "forefront" of her symptoms at the time. | |
| The inquest has previously been told that Miss Pope had been "anxious" before she went missing near her home on 7 November, due to the imminent release from prison of the man she said had attacked her. | |
| The inquest continues. | |
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| Related Topics | |
| Swanage |