Coroner probes the death of 9-year-old Darwin girl who took her own life in care

A young girl clutches her hands together as if in silent prayer as she gazes at her reflection in a hallway mirror before walking away, miming the actions she will soon take to end her own life.

A YOUNG Darwin girl clutches her hands together as if in silent prayer as she gazes at her reflection in a hallway mirror before walking away, miming the actions she will soon take to end her own life.

The chilling CCTV footage was played as the 9-year-old’s grieving family tearfully watched on during an inquest in the Darwin Local Court into her untimely death at her own hand in March last year.

Coroner Elisabeth Armitage heard the child — who was in foster care and cannot be named but who was given the pseudonym “Sammy” by the court — had been permanently removed from her parent’s at the age of just 10 months.

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The CCTV footage was in stark contrast to another video played in court, shot just two days earlier which showed a bright, bubbly child smiling widely among her peers at school as teachers noted her improved mood from days earlier when she had been described as “extremely quiet”.

An examination of Sammy’s iPad records from this time would later reveal a darkly disturbing search history, including the name of another local 9-year-old, a boy who had lost his life in an apparent tragic playground accident just over a year earlier.

Counsel assisting the coroner, Kelvin Currie, said Sammy also Googled the name of Kobe Bryant, whose death the previous month had shocked basketball fans everywhere, likely including the keen young player but more bizarrely, the name Steven Stewart.

“(She) didn’t get the search (result) she was looking for it seems so she typed in ‘Steven Stewart Richmond’ and got someone from Richmond, Virginia in the United States that had died in 2016,” he said.

“It’s unknown whether there’s any relevance to that or not.”

Just before 1pm on March 14, Sammy’s carer found her unresponsive at home, having carried out the plan foreshadowed in front of the mirror earlier that day and she could not be revived.

Mr Currie said the hearing was mandatory as Sammy was formally in the Care of Territory Families at the time but the inquiry would seek to answer three basic questions: Why Sammy took her life that day; whether there were any signs of what was to come; and whether anything can be done to prevent another tragedy.

Ms Armitage said Sammy’s death was difficult to comprehend and the inquest would not be easy “but the Coroner’s court doesn’t look away from those kinds of tragedies”.

“This little girl’s life and death command our attention,” she said.

“Is there more that we should have seen? Is there more we could have done?”

The hearing continues on Wednesday.

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Originally published as Coroner probes the death of 9-year-old Darwin girl who took her own life in care