A 12-year-old girl who was ‘completely devastated’ by an alleged rape attack wrote ‘I just want to be happy again’ minutes before taking a fatal overdose, it emerged today.
Tragic Semina Halliwell also told how she didn’t want to live anymore, but at the same time didn’t want to hurt ‘the few people’ she loved.
The schoolgirl felt she was not believed when a detective who listened to her story of being sexually abused by a boy told her it was “her word against his”, her mother has told an inquest.
Rachel Halliwell yesterday claimed officers treated her daughter ‘unprofessionally’ and made her feel like ‘an inconvenience’.
Semina had initially not wanted to proceed with the alleged rape in January 2021.
But after learning the same boy had sexually assaulted another girl, she changed her mind, her mother Rachel said yesterday.
But when police were at the family home in Southport, Merseyside, in June 2021 for an unrelated attack, Semina said: ‘I’ve had enough’ and went upstairs.
Tragically, she overdosed on prescription medications.
Semina Halliwell (pictured) died on June 12 last year after overdosing on prescription drugs
This is the last photo of schoolgirl Semina Halliwell, from Southport, Merseyside, who committed suicide in June 2021
Despite being rushed to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, where she underwent intensive medical treatment, Semina had to be withdrawn from life support three days later on June 12.
Today, on the second day of her investigation, we learned details of heartbreaking social media posts that Semina wrote on the evening of June 8, shortly before she overdosed.
In a letter she wrote late that evening, she wrote “I have no feelings” and “I just want to be happy again.”
In the snap, she posted: “There’s nothing worse than not wanting to live anymore but also not wanting to end it because you don’t want to hurt the few people around you that you love.
“So you just wake up and exist every day, knowing how much it hurts.”
In another, in the early hours of June 9, she wrote: “When will everything get better and when will you start getting over him?”
The hearing also heard details of a WhatsApp conversation between Semina and her mother on March 28, the day she told police she did not want to give a formal interview about her accusation.
During the conversation, Mrs. Halliwell tells Semina that it is her decision whether to continue.
Rachel Halliwell (pictured) said her daughter was a ‘happy, normal little girl’ but the alleged assault ‘completely destroyed’ her and made her afraid to leave the house
“If you don’t feel comfortable doing it, you don’t have to do it,” she wrote.
“I will love you and support you whatever you want.”
Semina replied that she was afraid of abandoning her mother.
“I don’t want to let him get away with it, but at the same time I just want to forget about it,” she wrote.
“I don’t know what to do about it.”
Yesterday’s hearing at Bootle Town Hall was told Semina – who was autistic – was ‘completely devastated’ by the alleged rape.
Ms Halliwell said she informed Semina’s teachers at Stanley High School in Southport about the alleged rape, as well as the subsequent physical attacks on her daughter, but they were of “no help”.
She contacted police, but when officers arrived, “the way they spoke to her and the way they presented themselves was, in my opinion, unprofessional,” she said.
Semina Halliwell (pictured) was just 12 years old when she died in June 2021
“It was almost like they didn’t care,” she said.
Earlier questioned by Assistant Coroner Johanna Thompson, Ms Halliwell said a male detective told Semina the case was ‘her word against his’.
The comment made her feel “like she wasn’t believed,” she added.
The officer also asked, “Did she want it hanging over her head?” Ms Halliwell said, adding: ‘That is not the way to speak to any victim.’
But after initially deciding not to pursue her complaint, Semina later decided to proceed after learning that the same boy had allegedly assaulted another girl, her mother said.
“She said it was enough.”
When asked what the outcome would have been if Semina had received better support after making the rape accusation, her mother replied: “She would still be here today.”
Earlier, Merseyside Police representative Barnabas Branston insisted that as far as the officers at the time of Semina’s death were concerned, her video interview about the rape allegation would still go ahead.
Rachel Halliwell (pictured here with her daughter) said Semina was treated ‘unprofessionally’ by Merseyside Police
The hearing also heard how agencies, including child protection, had been involved with Semina’s family since 2015 and she had been identified as ‘vulnerable’.
She also had appointments with child and adolescent mental health services.
The issues included incidents of alleged physical attacks by Semina’s older sibling on their mother and a previous suicide attempt in the family.
Donna Buck, an educational nurse, said she met Semina in 2020 to ask how she was settling into high school.
She said she referred Semina to information on how to reduce self-harm and stay safe on social media, but there were no concerns about her overall well-being.
In April 2021, the school was informed that Semina had had sex with a 13-year-old boy at the family home, she said.
Her mother later confided that she feared Semina would become “promiscuous” and wear clothes that would make her look “sexy,” she added.
Ms Buck said she saw Semina again in May 2021, after which she denied having suicidal thoughts.
A 12-year-old girl named Semina Halliwell took a fatal overdose after police officers investigating her claim that a boy had raped her said it was “her word against his,” her mother Rachel Halliwell (pictured in the white coat) said during a judicial investigation. Today
The following month, a meeting was scheduled to discuss Semina’s status as a “child in need,” she said.
But tragically, on June 9, she was told that Semina had overdosed and that it would likely be fatal due to the “toxicity” of the drugs she had taken.
Harriet Johnson, representing Semina’s mother, asked Ms Buck why she had not discussed the alleged sexual assault when she saw the schoolgirl in May.
Ms Bull said she had not felt it was ‘appropriate’ to raise this as there was an ongoing police investigation and Semina was also receiving help from other professionals, including social workers.
For confidential support, call the Samaritans in Britain on 116 123, or visit a local Samaritan branch.
The hearing continues.