ReA bullied 12-year-old girl 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’s mother told a hearing her daughter was sent “inappropriate” messages by other pupils at her school, and was put in a “bubble” with a student she had asked to be moved away from.

Charley was found dead at her home in Cramlington, Northumberland, on October 1 2020.

Her parents have previously said she was bullied and claimed she struggled to get mental health support in the months before her death.

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On Wednesday an inquest at Northumberland Coroner’s Court heard a statement from Charley’s mother Jamie Patterson, who said her daughter changed halfway through her first year of secondary school.

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: “After finding this message I spoke to Charley who said she had been receiving messages of a similar nature for a while.”

She said she spoke to Charley’s school, Cramlington Learning Village, and learned “several other parents had also mentioned inappropriate messages going around school”.

Ms Patterson’s statement said during the first Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, the school asked parents to pay for a laptop so children could work remotely.

“Charley received messages from other pupils through this Chromebook and pupils would use the ‘breakout rooms’ to privately message each other. To my knowledge this was not being monitored by members of staff,” Ms Patterson said.

She said she believed Charley “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”.

The 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.”

Ms Patterson also said: “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.

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Ms Patterson claimed she was told that a telephone appointment “would happen much quicker” and that during the call the next day, she 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”.

She said the family was “actively campaigning to improve children’s mental health services and reduce waiting times”.

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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