Schoolgirl, 16, killed by a train on GCSE results day ‘may have been influenced by self-harm group’, family fear
A ‘FRAGILE’ teenager who was killed by a train on GCSE results day may have been part of a self-harm group, her family told an inquest today.
Tragic Jasmine Bush, 16, was living in her garden shed after a row with her parents at the family home in Haselmere, Surrey.
The teen had been taking medication to help manage depression before her death on August 24, 2017, Woking Coroners’ Court was told.
The inquest heard that Jasmine had a long-running row with her family and took to living inside a makeshift bedroom in the garden shed.
She had began struggling with her mental health from the age of 13 and had also started to smoke cannabis, the inquest heard.
Assistant coroner Anna Loxton today described the Woolmer Hill Technology College student as “fragile”.
It was heard that the teen “moved” into a small garden shed to get away from her family, where she consumed drugs.
INSTAGRAM CRACKDOWN: Banning self-harm content on social media
Earlier this year, Instagram annouced it would ban all graphic self-harm images in response to the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell.
The changes, which have been labelled “necessary” but “long overdue” came after Molly’s tragic suicide.
Despite showing “no obvious signs” she was found dead in her bedroom in November 2017.
Her family were horrified to find she had been “suggested” distrubing posts on Instagram and fellow photo app Pinterest containing images about suicide, anixety, depression and self-harm.
In the month after her death, Molly had been sent a personalised email with images of self-harm which had been sent due to the algorithms.
One of the pictures featured a girl with cuts on her arms and the caption: “I can’t tell you how many times I wish I was dead.”
After growing pressure in reaction to outrage over Molly’s untimely death, Instagram’s head Adam Mosseri met with health secretary Matt Hancock.
Mr Mosseri admitted that the social media network was not doing enough to police explicit imagery of self harm.
He said: “We are not where we need to be on self-harm and suicide, and we need to do more to protect the most vulnerable.
“We will get better and we are committed to finding and removing this content at scale.”
NSPCC said that Instagram had taken “an important step” but said that social networking sites still had a long way to go.
Chief executive Peter Wanless said: “Over the last decade, social networks have proven over and over that they won’t do enough.”
A recent report by MPs said tech giants should be legally forced to sign up to a compulsory code of ethics and prosecuted if they flout it.
Sajid Javid has reportedly backed proposals for a social media regulator to clamp down on content involving sex abuse, self-harm and cyberbullying.
Sophie Walker, a lawyer on behalf of the Bush family, highlighted Jasmine’s deteriorating mental health before her death.
She said: “Her parents began to notice that she was not eating properly and stopped her living in the shed, they put a padlock on the door.
“They are concerned about the lack of support they received from social services as they had difficulties with Jasmine.
“There are concerns about a self-harm group.”
It was not made clear whether the self-harm group was part of an online forum or involved social media.
But her death came before Instagram introduced dramatic new measures to ban self-harm on the site after the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell.
The inquest heard how Jasmine’s behaviour allegedly escalated as she began stealing, leading to an intervention by social services.
Social services worker Alison Watts said: “There was repeated attempts from workers, they text, called and tried to visit but she was not in.
“They made continued attempts to locate Jasmine – our workers are skilled at trying to engage with a young person.”
Concerns over the Jasmine’s use of cannabis were also raised during the inquest.
Doctor Marcus Panchaud said: “I’m not a drugs specialist, but is has been said cannabis can cause psychosis.
“The majority of patients if they quit anti-depressants suddenly they can be fine but others can become acutely unwell.
“They tend to get irritable and become unwell.”
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In February, Instagram announced it will ban all graphic self-harm images following the death of Molly Russell.
The 14-year-old was viewing distressing content on self-harming and suicide before she took her own life in 2017.
Critics have slammed the photo sharing app for not doing enough to protect users against content about suicide and depression.
Health secretary Matt Hancock met with Instagram’s head Adam Mosseri, who admitted that not enough was being done to prevent images of self harm being shared.
Mr Mosseri said: “We are not where we need to be on self-harm and suicide, and we need to do more to protect the most vulnerable
“We will get better and we are committed to finding and removing this content at scale.”
The inquest continues.