THE heartbroken mum of a schoolgirl, 12, who died after making a raped claim revealed how trolls abused her just an hour after the tragedy.
Semina Halliwell died in hospital on June 12 2021, after taking an overdose of her mother’s prescription medication at their home in Southport, Merseyside.
Semina Halliwell died on June 12 2021 after taking a fatal overdoseX/@Rachelhalliwel5
Semina was in the process of reporting allegations of sexual assault before the tragedyX/@Rachelhalliwel5
PASemina’s mum Rachel Halliwell told how she was bombarded with vile abuse after her daughter’s death[/caption]
If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call the Samaritans for free on 116123.
Just minutes before the tragedy, Semina shared two final posts on social media about “wanting to be happy again”.
She shared: “I may laugh and smile every day but I’m in so much pain.”
In March 2021 Semina told her mum she had been raped in January that year, the inquest heard.
Rachel recalled how her daughter initially withdrew her complaint after making a report to the police, because “she felt like she wasn’t believed”.
At the inquest, she continued: “I think to say to a 12-year-old child ‘it is going to take 18 months to two years to go to court, do you really want it hanging over your head’ and ‘it’s your word against his’ is not what any woman or child who has been through sexual assault needs to hear and she was 12 with autism.”
After the 12-year-old made an allegation of rape, her mum said she endured emotional and even physical bullying at school.
Rachel said she saw horrific videos of Semina being “jumped” and attacked from behind by groups of girls several times.
The inquest into her death, at Bootle Town Hall, heard she was a ” bright and bubbly girl” but became “depressed and withdrawn”.
Her grief-stricken mum Rachel Halliwell told the BBC how Semina “spent all of her childhood singing and dancing on her phone,” and would pretend to be a talk show host.
She said Semina began self-harming after starting secondary school and was diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorder.
VILE ABUSE
The grieving mum said she has been compelled to report more than 100 vile trolls to the police since her daughter’s death.
She explained with disgust how her other children have received death threats.
Some thugs have even battered the door of their family home while shouting abuse.
Rachel said within an hour of Semina’s passing, there were “endless” abusive posts being shared on social media.
“They [the trolls] would put up pictures of a dead person in a coffin and add the name Semina,” she told the BBC after the inquest.
One sick bully went as far as offering £10,000 to the person who would destroy Semina’s grave, which had been covered in dog faeces on separate occasions.
The family have now given their lost child a black headstone that has her portrait engraved with the words “Semina Mary Halliwell. Forever 12”.
In the image she is wearing her favourite denim jacket.
Rachel added: “Sometimes I don’t think I’ve processed that she’s gone. She didn’t need to die.”
RAPE CLAIMS
The inquest heard that before the tragedy Semina had begun Snapchatting an older boy in summer 2020.
Rachel now believes he groomed her daughter.
The young girl sent him an explicit photograph, which was later sent around her peers at school.
Her mum said Semina was bullied relentlessly and referred to as “the biggest sl*g in Year 7”.
In March 2021 the 12-year-old told her mum she’d been sexually assaulted in the woods a few months prior, and about the older boy on Snapchat.
Rachel explained: “She said she felt horrible, she hated herself, she felt dirty.”
Seminas’s mental health appeared to go on a rapid decline, wearing clothes to cover her scars and developing bulimia.
”I’VE HAD ENOUGH’
After the inquest, her childhood best friend Lincoln O’Neill, told the BBC: “She was amazing, she was funny, kind – she had a smile that could light up the whole room.
“We started noticing her self-harming and it was scary to see.”
He said Semina also told him she was sexually assaulted and “you could see it took an effect on her”.
But despite her vile abuse, and feeling disheartened by Merseyside Police, the schoolgirl decided to proceed with her report of sexual assault.
Rachel said: “She was determined to do this but in the mean time we have got all this chaos going on in school, outside of our home and she just couldn’t cope.”
The inquest heard before taking a fatal overdose, Semina was downstairs in her home with police, to review CCTV footage.
She told them “I’ve had enough of this”, and her mum thought she was referring to having officers in the house.
Semina’s brother tragically found her upstairs having taken an overdose.
She was rushed to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool and died there on June 12, 2021.
In a statement which was read to the court, consultant paediatrician Mark Deakin said Semina had asked him if she was going to die.
She told him two days before her death that she regretted overdosing.
The schoolgirl said she took them to “make her sleep for a couple of days”.
Semina’s family argued at the inquest that the authorities could have prevented her death.
They have made 13 complaints to Merseyside Police about its handling of Semina’s rape allegation.
‘EXCEPTIONALLY VULNERABLE’
But coroner Johanna Thompson concluded none of the authorities who dealt with the schoolgirl could have prevented her death.
She did not agree with submission from the family that Merseyside Police, Semina’s school, health trusts and Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council had breached operational duties.
Ms Thompson continued: “The evidence has not revealed to me any indication that a real and immediate risk to Semina’s life was known to any of the state agencies at any relevant point in time which would have made her death preventable.”
The coroner concluded Semina had “a complex social history” and was “exceptionally vulnerable”.
“Her death arose as a consequence of taking an overdose of her mother’s prescription medication whilst in a state of distress and her intent at that time is unknown,” she said.
Merseyside Police also entered submissions during the inquest agreeing with the coroner’s conclusion there was no suggestion of any systemic breach and no evidence the authorities could have prevented Semina’s death.
A Merseyside Police spokesperson told the BBC: “We would like to express our thoughts and condolences to Semina’s mum and family.”
A spokesperson for Snapchat said “our hearts go out to Semina’s family” and the company works “in multiple ways to try to prevent and take action on this type of behaviour”.
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