A 13-year-old schoolgirl was found hanged at her home with “I hate my brother” written on her arm after the pair argued because she didn’t wake him for work, a coroner’s inquest heard.
Bethany Fitton, from Hebden Bridge, a small town 200 miles north of London, was found by her 18-year-old brother, Ben, who desperately tried to save her before she died in the hospital.
An inquest was told that the pair had an argument in June last year after Ben slept in and Bethany failed to wake him for work.
At school that day, she doodled on her left arm in ink “I hate my brother.”
Bradford Coroner’s Court heard she regularly scribbled on herself. Coroner’s inquests are convened when the cause of death is unknown. In such circumstances, a jury is presented evidence to determine who died, where they died, when they died and how they died.
After her final class, Bethany went to meet her new boyfriend and the pair went for a walk in a local park before she caught the bus home.
Her mom, Estelle Fitton, had her tea waiting for her shortly after 6 p.m. and she took the meal upstairs to her room, where she started playing music.
Fitton said her daughter was social media-mad — using Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and Kick — even moving her mattress into the spare room to be closer to the Wi-Fi router.
Estelle recounted that her husband, Richard, was at work and Ben had gone to the movies with his girlfriend.
The inquest heard that when Ben returned home about 7:30 p.m., he was given a basket of laundry to take upstairs by his mom.
The teenager had to go through Bethany’s bedroom to get to the staircase that leads to his room and found his sister hanging.
Suicide is increasing. It is a sign that sin in the land is increasing. The only answer to change this trajectory is through the compassion found in the shed blood of Jesus. He is the ONLY answer for this family. The burden bearer and the way maker for their mourning and for families who currently have children in hospitals with current suicide attempts.
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