However, in the years leading up to her death, her mental health was \u201cfragile\u201d and she was considered \u201cextremely vulnerable\u201d.<\/p>\n
She received considerable counselling, psychiatric assessment, and medication. <\/p>\n
At one point she was hospitalised. <\/p>\n
Coroner Mary-Anne Borrowdale said the teen\u2019s first contact with mental health services came in 2020 after her father learned she was accessing pornographic material online and had searched the internet for the means of suicide. <\/p>\n
He also reported she was online overnight, interacting with adult men.<\/p>\n
In the years leading up to her death, the teen told her psychiatrist she felt like a \u201cbad person\u201d and was having breakdowns.<\/p>\n
She presented with \u201cchronic suicidal ideation and some deliberate self-harm\u201d.<\/p>\n
She also heard voices in her head \u201cwith different personalities\u201d and said one was \u201cvery mean\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mean voice urged [her] to kill herself. [She] stated that she had never tried to do so and would not give in to the voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2022 the teen was diagnosed with PTSD with associated anxiety.<\/p>\n
It was noted she was \u201ctraumatised from having accessed pornography online by accident when aged 9-10 years, and again subsequently due to a compulsive curiosity to revisit such material\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201c[She] had also sexualised interactions with adult males on social media platforms,\u201d said the coroner. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe felt uncomfortable around males, and was traumatised, affecting her mood and sleep\u2026 [she] reported inconsistent changes in the voices that she was hearing, sometimes the mean voice was absent, at other times it was the dominant voice.”<\/p>\n
The teen was reaching out for help for years. Photo \/ File <\/p>\n
In mid-2022 she confided to a mental health helpline: \u201cI\u2019m a bad, bad person. I\u2019ve been talking to sexual predators online\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201c[The voices in my head] yell and scream, especially when I don\u2019t have my headphones on. They\u2019ve gotten worse since I started talking to people online. I can\u2019t stop, though.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few months later she told the helpline she was feeling very anxious, because four nights before she had slipped away from home and met up with a significantly older male who she had met online.<\/p>\n
Coroner Borrowdale revealed the man was thought to be about 48.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said that they had unprotected sex, with a second sexual encounter subsequently. [She] was opposed to telling her parents about this, and wrote: \u2018I feel nervous and anxious because I feel like I shouldn\u2019t be doing it but I like doing it\u2019,\u201d the coroner said. <\/p>\n
\u201c[She] confided in a friend, who advised that she must stop. She felt scared, as now the man knew where she lived. Shortly afterwards, [her] friend\u2019s mother advised [the teen\u2019s mother] about what had happened. [She] admitted the sexual relationship\u2026 [and] stated that she had acted willingly and consensually.\u201d<\/p>\n
The teen\u2019s mother reported the matter to the police, but no action was taken. <\/p>\n
\u201cPolice advised her that they could not take action against the man, given that [the teen] was above the age of consent and stated that she had consented to the sexual contact,\u201d said the coroner. <\/p>\n
The teen told her mother she had blocked all contact with the man. <\/p>\n
However, she continued to exchange messages with him. <\/p>\n
In 2023 she was admitted to a mental health unit after disclosing \u201cintense suicidal thoughts\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201c[She] welcomed the admission. She wanted to get better and to be rid of suicidal thoughts,\u201d Coroner Borrowdale said. <\/p>\n
\u201c[She] felt ambivalence in regard to her online grooming by older males. She wanted to stop interacting with adult men and pornography online and knew that her parents prohibited it; she felt tremendous guilt, but also an addiction or compulsion to continue. [She] could not reconcile her opposing thoughts and emotions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn hospital, [she] reported increased suicidal thinking, and flashbacks to when she had been groomed online at age 9\u2026 [her] wider family received advice on how to support her. She was started on medications.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eleven days after she was discharged, she contacted the helpline, reporting she was \u201cfeeling suicidal and can\u2019t seem to distract myself\u201d. <\/p>\n
When asked if she had made a suicide plan, the teen replied: \u201cKind of. I know how, just not when\u201d.<\/p>\n
The teen was messaging adult men. Photo \/ 123rf<\/p>\n
Over the next few weeks the teen reported \u201cstrongly suicidal thoughts and thoughts of harming her mother\u201d. <\/p>\n
She continued to have contact with the man grooming her and started self-harming again.<\/p>\n
In early February she was taken to the emergency department and told staff the mean voices had returned and were telling her to harm herself and others.<\/p>\n
She sent text messages that day saying she was adamant that someone \u201cwants to hurt me\u2026 he hates me. He thinks I\u2019m bad\u201d. <\/p>\n
She was offered a bed in an adult mental health ward – or to go home \u201cwith safety measures and follow up\u201d the next morning. <\/p>\n
\u201c[She] wanted to go home, and for [her mother] to sleep outside her door to keep her safe. [Her mother] agreed to do so, and to remove anything that (she) could use to harm herself,\u201d the coroner explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pressure placed on [the mother] by this safeguarding arrangement is extraordinary. It reflects poorly on the acute capacity within our mental health system that a severely mentally unwell teenager who wanted clinical assistance with suicidal urgings could not be given an adolescent inpatient bed anywhere in the South Island.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next day the teen said she was hearing \u201ca single male voice, giving clear instructions as to how she should kill herself\u201d and she was feeling \u201ctactile sensations of a man touching her\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe felt unsafe, and paranoid that her mother might poison her. Urgent arrangements were made to access an inpatient bed,\u201d Coroner Borrowdale said. <\/p>\n
\u201c[She] advised that the older man with whom she had sex had now told her that he was facing assault charges. This had triggered more voices and thoughts of harming herself and others. Clinicians agreed that the voices were caused by trauma rather than by psychosis.\u201d<\/p>\n
The coroner said during the admission the teen was co-operative and \u201cworked hard\u201d. After a few weeks it was agreed she could go on leave from the hospital and spend time at home.<\/p>\n
She was told \u201cif everything went well at home\u201d she would be discharged. <\/p>\n
Two days before she died she told her psychiatrist she was \u201cconcerned about whether she had acquired enough coping strategies\u201d in hospital.<\/p>\n
She denied feeling suicidal and the psychiatrist arranged to see her in two days. <\/p>\n
The next day the teen\u2019s mother checked in on her before she left for work. She was in her room playing a game on her phone and was \u201chappy and fine\u201d.<\/p>\n
The mother considered working from home – but was also aware that the teen \u201cdid not want to be constantly supervised\u201d.<\/p>\n
Coroner Borrowdale said the mother felt \u201cvery overwhelmed and wanted guidance\u201d and went to work on the advice of hospital staff who said the teen \u201cneeded normality\u201d.<\/p>\n
At 9.35am the teen\u2019s grandparents called into the house and said she \u201cappeared well and happy\u201d.<\/p>\n
At 10.47am she rang a suicide helpline and admitted she had tried to take her life. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe said that she did not know what to do but didn\u2019t want to live anymore or do school anymore,\u201d said the coroner. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe call-taker was empathetic and urged [her] to take that day\u2019s medications\u2026 and to call or message again at any time, instead of feeling overwhelmed on her own or taking harmful steps,\u201d Coroner Borrowdale said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt 11.05 and 11.09 am [she] rang [her psychiatrist] and left two voicemail messages. In the messages, [she] stated that she \u2018was trying not to kill herself\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The psychiatrist] picked up these messages at 11.20am but could not get hold of [the teen].\u201d<\/p>\n
She called the police and the teen\u2019s mother, who raced home. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt 11.44am [she] was the first to reach the house and found [the teen] unresponsive\u2026 [She] was unable to be resuscitated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emergency services raced to help the teen but she could not be saved. Photo \/ File <\/p>\n
The teen\u2019s death was investigated for the coroner and as part of that police examined her digital devices and other records.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is clear that there had been repeated and escalating contact between [the teen] and an adult male online,\u201d said Coroner Borrowdale.<\/p>\n
\u201c[She] had received photos of the man\u2019s naked torso and face, most likely still images from a video clip, as well as an image of the man\u2019s genitals. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe man has been identified by police, but I do not name him here. He has denied having any contact with [the teen].<\/p>\n
Coroner Borrowdale said in the two days before the teen died, the man exchanged messages with her \u201cthat were suggestive of a sexualised relationship\u201d.<\/p>\n
Police also confirmed that on the morning she died she made eight internet searches in less than two hours about a particular method of suicide and \u201cviewed some content on mental health disorders\u201d.<\/p>\n
The coroner said the teen was \u201ca vulnerable adolescent\u201d who had suffered trauma from the age of 9, when she began online chat contact with adult males and viewing online pornography. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs [she] grew into adolescence, she felt a compulsion to continue this contact, which on two occasions developed into physical sexual contact with an adult male,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
In her psychiatrist\u2019s assessment, these interactions were exploitative, traumatising, and left the teen struggling with her mental health.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sexualised online contact made [the teen] feel special, but also filled her with remorse and guilt. [Her] periods of high anxiety corresponded with those of grooming and exploitation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The psychiatrist told the coroner that the teen experienced guilt, increased anxiety and increased suicidal thoughts each time she connected with adult pornographic or adult chat sites.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Her] death brings attention to the incredible concerns related to the inherent risk with online predators. These individuals are adept at being able to locate, identify, and exploit vulnerable people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the grooming process, victims gradually become less aware of cues which would normally alert a person [to] danger. Actions that would usually be recognised as perverse become normalised.<\/p>\n
\u201cExperienced predators can, eventually, con their victims into seeking inappropriate sexualised activity, so that they can then dismiss personal culpability and mislabel this as \u2018consensual\u2019. From what we can ascertain, this is what happened to [the teen].\u201d<\/p>\n
Coroner Borrowdale said it was \u201csadly clear\u201d that the teen\u2019s death followed intense mental health issues. <\/p>\n
\u201c[She] had the external symptoms of trauma… but she also had the deep internal symptoms of trauma, of which hearing voices, a desire to self-harm, and suicidal thinking were the most acute,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my assessment, [the teen] had come to despair of her chances of \u2018beating her demons,\u2019 and impulsively seized the opportunity of being alone to end her life. <\/p>\n
\u201cHer calls to Lifeline and to [the psychiatrist], on the morning she died, can only have been made because \u2013 in large measure \u2013 [she] wanted to be stopped from ending her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, [she] wanted to be free of her illnesses, and believed that in death she would achieve that freedom\u2026 [she] was overwhelmed by the feeling that recovery was not possible for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coroner Borrowdale said there were \u201cno material failings\u201d in relation to the teen\u2019s mental health or medical treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll clinical specialists were attentive and appropriately concerned for [her],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, it is patently unsatisfactory that an acute inpatient bed in a therapeutic adolescent mental health facility was not immediately available for [the teen], when her mental health was imperilled, and she was acutely suicidal. <\/p>\n
\u201c[She] was not resistant to treatment. She was co-operative with clinicians, sought help, and was eager to be well. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut it is no good for coroners and suicide advocates to urge young people to seek help, when the support they receive may be limited to texts, calls, and video-links, instead of face-to-face clinical assessment and treatment in a safe environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the coroner was critical of the system, she was clear that \u201cno one is at fault in having failed to predict or to prevent\u201c the teen\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
She wanted the details of the tragedy made public to draw attention to online harms. <\/p>\n
\u201c[Her] online ordeal is a lesson to us all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201c[She] was from a very young age exposed to indecent adult sexual material online, and to contact with exploitative adult males, causing her enduring trauma. <\/p>\n
\u201c[Her] parents acted responsibly to try to limit her access to these harms. But, as many parents and caregivers know, the modern world operates largely online and legitimate, healthy online contact is necessary and encouraged. <\/p>\n
\u201cRegulation of a young person\u2019s online exposure can be very difficult and, as technologies continually evolve, preventative vigilance and effectiveness are hard to maintain.<\/p>\n
\u201cNetSafe has published an Online Safety Parent Toolkit that is designed to help\u2026 I encourage all parents and caregivers with concerns that their young people may be vulnerable to digital harms to read and view these resources and, for further help, to contact NetSafe and seek assistance.”<\/p>\n
Anna Leask is a senior journalist who covers national crime and justice. She joined the Herald in 2008 and has worked as a journalist for 20 years with a particular focus on family and gender-based violence, child abuse, sexual violence, homicides, mental health and youth crime. She writes, hosts and produces the award-winning podcast A Moment In Crime, released monthly on nzherald.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, in the years leading up to her death, her mental health was \u201cfragile\u201d and she was considered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,95,1763,536,1651,8912,6286,82477,134,8788,78,1885,111,43,139,69,6289,544,8911,672,1961,1455,1079],"class_list":["post-115911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-and","tag-article","tag-care","tag-digital","tag-distressing","tag-exploitation","tag-gaps","tag-health","tag-highlights","tag-in","tag-mental","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-readers","tag-some","tag-suicide","tag-teens","tag-this","tag-warning","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}