A "kind, strong" teenager who took her own life in the bathroom of her Pembrokeshire home did not do so as a result of bullying or social media, Pembrokeshire Coroner has concluded.
Megan Evans, who was 14 at the time of her death, was found in her home in Milford Haven on February 7, 2017.
The circumstances surrounding her death have been the subject of a five-day inquest this week. Pembrokeshire Coroner, Paul Bennet has also considered whether there were adequate procedures and systems around bullying at Milford Haven School, where Megan was a pupil.
Megan’s family described her as ‘a kind and beautiful soul’ who was intelligent, thoughtful and practical and ‘brought love and laughter into our home’.
They believed that she had been the subject of bullying on social media before her death and expressed concern that a deterioration in Megan’s behaviour had not been reported to them by the school.
The coroner said that he had looked at evidence from Dyfed-Powys Police’s digital crime investigation unit which concluded that its analysis could find ‘no evidence of targeted abuse or bullying directed at Megan’.
The inquest heard that Megan was concerned about her father’s health, as well as reports from pupils at another school relating to her boyfriend at the time.
Mr Bennet said that although there had been incidents in school where Megan had been upset, including one just five days before her death, she did not confide in her friends about what was troubling her.
Mr Bennett said that he was satisfied that Milford Haven School had policies and procedures in place to address bullying including whole school assemblies and PSE lessons on the subject, and an anti-bullying button on the school intranet.
“Pupils knew what route they could take should bullying arise,” said Mr Bennett. “That does not mean that pupils did avail themselves of those options.”
He added that there was clearly an issue about what constituted bullying and that 'bullying to one may be banter to another'.
He said that the school was able to communicate with parents via a diary that pupils took home.
The coroner said that it was not possible to know what had driven Megan to take the steps that she did on the evening of February 7.
He said that her actions were not related to bullying, failure prevent bullying, online abuse or to an incident at the school gates the month before. He did not believe that they were to do with Megan being reprimanded over her uniform or with a failure to recognise changes in Megan’s behaviour by the school.
He said that he believed that Megan had intended to take her life and that, due to the circumstances in which Megan was found, he felt this was not a ‘cry for help’.
He gave a conclusion of suicide saying: “Megan Catherine Evans died as a ‘result of self suspension, having intended to take her own life. The decision to do so was not influenced by bullying or social media.”
Earlier this week Megan's family said they would continue Megan’s legacy by continuing to always fight for kindness and love.
“She is missed more than we could ever express,” they said. “She made the world a better place just by being in it.”
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