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Hannah Smith inquest: Teenager posted 'online messages' | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
A 14-year-old girl found hanged in her bedroom probably posted "vile" messages about herself on a social media website, police told an inquest. | |
Hannah Smith was found dead at her home in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, on 2 August. | |
Her father told the inquest she had been bullied for some time. | |
Recording a verdict of suicide, Leicester coroner Catherine Mason said there was no evidence Hannah had been targeted by bullies on the Ask.fm site. | |
Following Hannah's death, her father David Smith had called for action to be taken against internet trolls who had apparently posted messages about his daughter in the run-up to her death. | |
However, Det Sgt Wayne Simmons revealed at the inquest that scrutiny of Hannah's laptop and address codes - known as IP addresses - which can help locate computers connected to the internet, had revealed strong evidence she had in fact posted all the messages to herself. | |
Ms Mason said that "understandably", friends and family who saw those messages might have concluded they had caused her to take her own life. | |
"The evidence I have was that on the balance of probabilities they would all have been at Hannah's own hand," she said. | |
"Why she did it, I don't know." | |
'Bubbly, happy girl' | |
Earlier in the inquest at Leicester Town Hall, Mr Smith said his daughter had been involved in a fight with a friend at a party five months before her death. | |
He said he believed his daughter had been bullied for some time and believed her eczema had been the reason she was targeted. | |
He said she changed from a "bubbly, happy" girl to a more introverted person after her head was smashed against a wall twice. | |
Mr Smith said his daughter, who attended Lutterworth High School, had also taken to spending more time in bed and was late for class about once a week. | |
He said he had put this down to her being "a lazy teenager". | |
Mr Smith said Hannah's eczema may have been the reason she was targeted. | Mr Smith said Hannah's eczema may have been the reason she was targeted. |
He said he had spoken to his daughter about self harming, but she had never raised the subject of wanting to take her own life. | |
Hannah's older sister Joanne Smith said on one occasion she had "ripped out the hair" of a person she had believed to be bullying her sister at school. | Hannah's older sister Joanne Smith said on one occasion she had "ripped out the hair" of a person she had believed to be bullying her sister at school. |
She said her younger sibling had been targeted throughout Years Seven, Eight and Nine. | She said her younger sibling had been targeted throughout Years Seven, Eight and Nine. |