A 12-year-old girl overdosed on her mother’s prescription tablets after making an allegation of sexual assault to police and “feeling like she wasn’t believed”, an inquest has heard.
Semina Halliwell died on 12 June 2021, three days after taking her mother’s tablets at their home in Southport, Merseyside.
Her mother, Rachel Halliwell, told the inquest at Bootle town hall that Semina had been a “happy little girl”, but began to self-harm after she joined Stanley high school.
In March 2021 Semina told her mother she had been sexually assaulted two months previously, in January.
“It destroyed her mentally, physically,” Halliwell told the inquest. “She changed into a different person.”
After reporting the incident to police, Semina initially withdrew the complaint. “She felt like she wasn’t believed,” Halliwell said. “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 or rape needs to hear – and she was 12 with autism.”
Halliwell said Semina was bullied and beaten up three times after making the allegation, and wanted to continue with the complaint after deciding “enough was enough”.
She was due to be interviewed by police in June, the inquest was told. Before she took the pills, police officers had visited the home to look at CCTV footage.
“She was determined to do this but in the meantime we have got all this chaos going on in school, outside of our home and she just couldn’t cope,” her mother said.
Halliwell said her daughter had told her: “I’ve had enough of this,” adding: “I took it that she’d had enough of police being in the house.”
Semina was found by her brother, who found the empty tablet packaging on the floor. She was taken to Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool, where she died three days later.
In a statement read to the inquest, Mark Deakin, a consultant paediatrician, said Semina had asked him two days previously if she was going to die. He said she told him she regretted taking the tablets and had done so to “make her sleep for a couple of days”.
Semina’s family have previously said she was let down by the authorities that should have protected her.
The case has attracted the attention of Elon Musk, who replied to Halliwell on his social media site, X, this week, saying “terrible” in response to a post she wrote last year about her daughter’s death.
The inquest, which is due to last for seven days, continues.
• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland.
• In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111.