Bullied girl ‘sent video on how to tie knot that couldn’t be untied’ before taking her own life

A schoolgirl was sent a TikTok video showing her ‘how to tie a knot that couldn’t be untied’ a week before she killed herself, an inquest has heard.

Charley-Ann Patterson was found dead at home in Cramlington, Northumberland, on October 1 2020.

Northumberland Coroner’s Court today heard a statement from her mother, Jamie Patterson, who said the 12-year-old’s behaviour dramatically changed halfway through her first year of secondary school.

She says her daughter was sent ‘inappropriate’ messages by other pupils at her school and that she was put in a ‘bubble’ with a student she had asked to be moved away from.

The statement read by senior coroner Andrew Hetherington said that Ms Patterson checked Charley’s phone in January 2020 and saw a ‘shocking’ message which read: ‘You’re useless, you can’t even kill yourself properly.’

Ms Patterson said she spoke her daughter’s school, Cramlington Learning Village, and learned ‘several other parents had also mentioned inappropriate messages going around school’.

It was during the pandemic, when children received schooling remotely, that Charley first started to receive messages, the inquest heard.

Ms Patterson said she believed her daughter ‘felt very isolated’ due to not being able to go to school, but said the school ‘eventually allowed her to go to school two days a week’.

Her statement read: ‘Charley had asked to be moved away from one pupil in particular on a number of occasions.

‘One day she rang me to say the teacher had put her in the same “bubble” as the pupil she was having issues with.

‘She tried to tell the teacher but was told as this was her bubble it could not be changed.’

Ms Patterson said she took away Charley’s electronic devices over the summer of 2020 and saw a huge change in her mood and behaviour.

But that her attitude changed again when she returned to school in September.

Her statement said she noticed Charley had been deleting her messages and her call history, adding, ‘It was only a couple of weeks after returning to school that Charley tragically took her own life and our lives have not been the same since.

‘Approximately one week prior to Charley’s death she came to me and told me about a TikTok video she had been sent.

‘She said it was a video that showed her how to tie a knot that couldn’t be untied.

‘She would not tell me who had sent this to her but was visibly upset by it.

‘She said she had deleted it because she didn’t want anyone to see it.’

The inquest heard Ms Patterson 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’s self-harm seriously, potentially due to her age’.

She said after taking Charley to A&E on May 29 2020 after a second episode of self-harm, Charley was referred to the Enhanced Psychiatric Liaison Team and offered either a telephone call or a face-to-face appointment.

During a call the next day, the family was told Charley would be referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), ‘but that she would go on a waiting list and it was likely that she would not be seen for three years’.

Her statement read: ‘Charley had a telephone appointment with the crisis team which took place on June 1 2020 where it was determined that as Charley had no further episodes of self-harm, she would be discharged from services with a plan to be referred into the Northumberland (Early Help) Hub.

‘I have only just learned that this referral was never made.’

In a pen portrait read to the inquest, Ms Patterson described Charley as ‘a firecracker from day one’ and said she was ‘determined to do things her own way’.

The family has been actively campaigning to improve children’s mental health services and reduce waiting times following her death.

The inquest also heard evidence from Ellis Parker, a nurse practitioner with the universal crisis team for children and young people at Cumbria, Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust.

Ms Parker carried out the telephone call with Charley and Ms Patterson on June 1 2020, and said she had ‘wrongfully thought’ her colleague who had previously spoken to Charley had already made the referral to the Northumberland Hub.

Asked by the coroner if that had been a ‘missed opportunity’, Ms Parker said: ‘I think, yes it was an error on our behalf that the referral hadn’t been made, but I think in the time limits we are talking – four months – I suspect at best Charley might have received an initial assessment from whatever service the hub deemed appropriate.’

The inquest continues.

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