A 12-year-old girl was found hanged in her bedroom after her parents nagged her about being UNTIDY, an inquest has heard.
Katie Webb was found unconscious in her bedroom with a scarf wrapped around her neck on April 24 this year.
Her devastated dad Daniel, 34, told an inquest he had a row with Katie just two days before she died but put her mood “down to hormones.”
Mum Anne, 32, also told the hearing she had nagged her daughter to tidy her bedroom at the family home in Evesham, Worcs., hours before her death.
Speaking at the hearing at Stourport Coroner’s Court on Monday, Mr Webb said: “It was mine and Katie’s very first spat. I put it down to hormones.”
Tragically, two days later he heard a loud scream from his wife Anne who had discovered their daughter hanged in her bedroom.
The distraught dad managed to pull off the black scarf which was wrapped around Katie’s neck and tried to give her CPR.
He told the inquest: “I went straight to where the screaming was coming from to see Anne holding Katie and screaming ‘help me, help me, help me’.
“Then this really nice man pulled me out of the way and said ‘You’ve done enough, let someone who knows what they’re doing try’. I just broke down.”
Katie was airlifted to Birmingham Children’s Hospital but could not be saved.
When asked by the coroner what he thought his daughter was doing with the scarf around her neck, Mr Webb said: “I haven’t got a clue.”
She added that she had “argued” with Katie on the day of her death about her messy bedroom.
The inquest heard Worcestershire County Council’s social services division had placed Katie under a Child Protection Plan in 2010 following concerns around neglect.
This was downgraded to a Child in Need Plan in May 2012 after the family made good progress and was even removed entirely in September that year.
But the plan was reactivated in March this year after social workers found a diary Katie has been asked to complete which contained an entry saying: “If I don’t do my chores I will get a whack.”
Her parents denied it was true and Katie later told a social services worker it had never happened.
The inquest heard Worcestershire County Council’s social services division closed their case on Katie on April 23 – just one day before she died.
Geraint William, the Senior Coroner for Worcestershire, concluded there was no evidence Katie had been bullied either at school or online.
He recorded an open verdict saying he didn’t feel he had enough evidence to confidently record a verdict of suicide or accidental death.
Addressing Katie’s parents, Mr Williams said: “There’s absolutely nothing I can say that makes this look better.
“This will never, ever go away for you but it will get easier to live with and frankly that’s all you can hope for.”
Verdict: Open.
