A 12-year-old girl who overdosed after making a rape allegation told her mother she did not want to let the attacker “get away with it” but hated talking about it, an inquest has heard.
Semina Halliwell died in hospital on June 12 2021 after taking medication at her family home in Southport. An inquest at Bootle Town Hall has heard Semina alleged she was sexually assaulted in January 2021.
Her mother, Rachel Halliwell, told the hearing on Monday (January 13) that Semina might still be alive if there had been better support from police, social services and the school. On Tuesday (January 14), a series of harrowing WhatsApp messages and social media posts made by the Y7 Stanley High School pupil in the months leading up to her death were read to the court.
In them, she said: “I’m in so much pain. I just want to be happy again.” In an exchange on March 28 2021, Semina and her mum discussed reporting the attack to police, with Rachel saying: “I’m not pushing you to do anything. If you’re not comfortable doing it then you don’t have to, OK? I love you and I will support you whatever you want.”
Semina replied: “Yeah I know, it’s not that. I just don’t want to talk about it but I want to take it further.” Rachel said: “OK no problem. So what would you like me to say to the police?”
Semina said: “I don’t know because I feel like I’m letting you down as well.” She added: “I don’t want to let him get away with it but at the same time I just want to forget about it, but I don’t know. I just want to forget about it.”
Further details of chat logs, pictures and videos found on Semina’s phone were read out by Detective Sergeant Chris Maher. These included posts made on the night of June 9, 2021, when she took an overdose of pills that had been prescribed to her mum, the ECHO reports.
Semina Halliwell said she was ‘in so much pain’ in one of her final social media posts
Rachel previously gave evidence that Semina had been bullied and harassed by multiple children, who were not Stanley High School pupils, in the months following the alleged rape. Police had visited the family’s home following another report of harassment, and Semina had gone upstairs at around 12am, saying she had “had enough”.
At 12.20am, Semina made an image which referred to feelings of not wanting to be alive, but not wishing to “end it either”. This was followed by another image one minute later which read: “At this point I have no feelings. I’m numb. I may smile and laugh every day but I’m in so much pain. I just want to be happy again. It hurts so bad.”
DS Maher also described a number of Tiktok videos made by the 12-year-old alluding to the problems in her life, including rumours that she had been “used and abused”. On the night of June 9, shortly before she was found by her mum and taken to hospital, she made a video of herself miming the words: “Now that was a lot of damage.”
A video taken at 12.16am showed the 12-year-old miming a song and crying, and another video at 00.31am showed her miming the worlds “love, love, what’s it worth? Nothing.” This was followed by another video at 00.52am, which showed “empty blister packets which appeared to be on her bed”.
She later told her mum she had taken the pills, and she was rushed to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, where she took a further three videos from her hospital bed. Her condition deteriorated and she died on June 12.
The court heard Semina had been known to children’s mental health services since November 2018 after concerns were raised about her showing signs of autism, which she was later diagnosed with. She had been in contact with practitioners on several occasions, however she did not see anyone from the service after January 2021.
A face-to-face appointment was arranged for May 11 2021, but this was cancelled due to Semina attending school on that day and no replacement appointment was made. The schoolgirl was said to have been bullied, beaten, had naked photos of her passed around, and raped in the months before she died.
Semina’s mum Rachel Halliwell
Speaking previously about her daughter’s rape allegation, distraught mum Rachel told the coroner: “She said that [the boy] took her into the woods and sat her on a tree stump. He pulled his trousers down… she said she kept saying ‘no’. “She said he tried to rip her underwear and leggings. She said she was scared and he was horrible.”
Asked how it affected her, Ms Halliwell added: “It destroyed her mentally and physically, she changed to a different person. She felt bad about herself… she felt used.”
The court heard that the alleged attack happened in January 2021, just five months before Semina died. In the months before her death, Ms Halliwell also told the inquest that she noticed bruises on her daughter’s neck, self harm scars from her ‘wrists to her elbows’ and said she had attempted to take her life in March in a separate overdosing incident.
She said she later learned that her daughter had been beaten by children from a number of schools of three separate occasions. She also told how a naked photo of Semina had been sent around Stanley High School where she was a pupil.
But she claimed that when she spoke to the school about this incident, she received “no help or support” and was told she would need to report the incident to the police. Ms Halliwell also slammed the police response when she reported her daughter’s rape allegation as “unprofessional” and described the attending officers as acting “blasé” about the matter.
She told the inquest: “The way they spoke to her and the way they presented themselves to her, in my view, was unprofessional and not how you should speak to a 12-year-old child who has gone through a rape. I felt like they didn’t care, like it was an inconvenience to them.. almost like they couldn’t be bothered.
Ms Halliwell also claimed that detectives had told Semina: “it would be her word against his” referring to the boy she claimed had raped her.
The inquest continues.
You don’t have to suffer in silence if you’re struggling with your mental health.
Here are some groups you can contact:
Samaritans: Phone 116 123, 24 hours a day, or email jo@samaritans.org, in confidence.
Childline: Phone 0800 1111. Calls are free and won’t show up on your bill.
PAPYRUS: Suicide prevention charity offering professional help and support to children, young people and anyone concerned for someone struggling with life. Call HOPELINEUK on 0800 068 4141, text 07860 039 967 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org.
Depression Alliance: A charity for people with depression. No helpline, but it offers useful resources and links to other information.
Students Against Depression: A website for students who are depressed, have low mood, or are suicidal. Click here to visit.
Bullying UK: A website for both children and adults affected by bullying. Click here.
Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM): For young men who are feeling unhappy. There is a helpline: 0800 58 58 58 or visit the website.
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